HD 


UC-NRLF 


OF 


The  Industrial   Condition 


OF 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS 

IN  HONOLULU 


A  Social  Study 


BY 


FRANCES   BLASCOER 

(FORMERLY  EXECUTIVE  SECRETARY   OF  THE  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  FOR 
THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  COLORED  PEOPLE,  NEW  YORK  CITY.) 


Special  Investigator  for  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
Kaiulani  Home  for  Young  Women  and  Girls 


Honolulu  Social  Survey 

FIRST  STUDY 


HONOLULU,    NOVEMBER,  1912 


GIFT,  OF 


* 


The  Industrial   Condition 

OF 

WOMEN  AND  GIRLS 

IN  HONOLULU 


A  Social  Study 


BY 


FRANCES   BLASCOER 

(FORMERLY  EXECUTIVE  SECRETARY   OF  THE  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  FOR 
THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  COLORED  PEOPLE,  NEW  YORK  CITY.) 


Special  Investigator  for  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
Kaiulani  Home  for  Young  Women  and  Girls 


Honolulu  Social  Survey 

FIRST  STUDY 


HONOLULU,   NOVEMBER,  1912 


> 


i.  GEO.  W.  SMITH,  Hox.  WM.  L.  WHITNEY, 

Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee.  Secretary. 

HONOLULU 

SOCIAL   SURVEY 

1912 

UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES  OF  TIIK 
KAIULANI    HOME   FOR   GIRLS. 


Vol.  I.        Industrial  Condition  of  Women  and  Girls. 

Frances  Blascoer. 

Vol.  II.     Dependent  Children  Frances  Blascoer 

Vol.  III.  The  Social  Evil  James  A.  Rath 

Vol.  IV.    Housing  Conditions  James  A.  Rath 

Vol.  V.     Family  Budgets  -     James  A.  Rath 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 
Mrs.  Frances  M.  Swanzey 

.Chairman  Committee  on  Industrial  Conditions 

Mrs.  Walter  F.  Dillingham 

Committee  on  Dependent  Children 

Mr.  John  K.  Gait The  Social  Evil 

Mr.  George  R.  Carter Housing  Conditions 

Miss  Louise  Gulick Family  Budgets 


]^OTE: — Volumes  Xos.  I.  and  II.  now  ready.     Xos.  III.,  IV., 
and  V.  will  appear  later. 


PREFACE 

preparing  to  submit  the  results  of  the  five-months'  sur- 
vey of  Honolulu's  industrial  conditions  as  they  affect  women 
and  girls,  the  definition  of  a  pessimist: — one  who  has  just  met 
an  optimist, — has  more  than  once  floated  warningly  through 
my  mind.  • 

In  the  face  of  such  a  warning  it  is  perhaps  with  mixed  feel- 
ings one  confesses  to  a  conviction  that  much  may  be  done  to 
solve  the  problems  of  the  community. 

Workrooms  are  not  overcrowded;  the  air  and  light  are  al- 
ways good ;  there  is  no  highspeed  machinery ;  no  processes  dan- 
gerous to  life  and  limb  are  unguarded ;  fines  and  penalties  are 
unknown ;  shop  girls  work  only  eight  hours  a  day,  have  an 
annual  vacation  with  full  pay  for  two  wreeks  in  most  shops 
and  of  at  least  one  week  in  all;  clerks,  stenographers  and 
teachers  may  well  feel  that  they  have  found  here  their  earthly 
paradise  both  as  regards  hours  and  salaries. 

As  in  other  tropical  communities,  the  struggle  for  existence 
is  not  agonizing.  Even  on  kona  days,  throughout  which  all 
Honolulu  wilts,  night  brings  relief.  The  meanest  tenement 
in  Kakaako  is  swept  by  the  cool  trade  winds  that  come  down 
over  the  cloud-capped  heights  of  Tantalus  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year ;  and  there  is  no  dread  of  the  coming  of  winter. 

Kamaainas  say  that  the  aloha  of  the  spirits  of  departed  Ha- 
waiians — who  were  in  life  gentle,  generous  to  a  fault,  loving- 
flowers  and  music,  but  caring  most  of  all  for  their  island  home 
—forever  guards  their  former  haunts  and  exhorts  all  evil. 

Honolulu  itself  tempts  one:  the  Pacific  ocean  at  the  water- 
front, changing  from  emerald  to  purple  and  sapphire,  with  the 
violet  glow  over  all  which  transfers  itself  at  sunset  to  the  slopes 
of  the  grey-green  hills  backing  the  city;  and  between,  the  bun- 
galow and  cottage  dotted  city  itself,  most  of  its  squares  built 
up  solidly  with  tiny  dwellings  surrounded  by  scarlet  and  pink 
flowered  hibiscus  hedges  and  shaded  by  feathery-leaved  alga- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


robas,  cocoanut  and  date  palms  and  multi-colored  flowering 
trees;  with  ferns  and  vines  everywhere. 

One  must  look  hard  and  often  at  the  rectangular  and  unor- 
namental  tenement  blocks  which  obtrude  themselves  indiscrim- 
inately from  Kalihi-kai  to  Waikiki,  before  one  remembers  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  which  is,  alas,  still  in  force  al- 
though increasingly  hard-pressed  by  public  opinion,  minimum 
wage-boards  and  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World. 

Before  considering  the  supply  and  demand,  however,  I  wish 
to  express  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Kaiulani  Home  my 
keen  appreciation  of  the  opportunity  to  make  the  survey;  espe- 
cially in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  work  involved  a  consider- 
able enlargement  of  the  plan  they  originally  had  in  mind  when 
I  was  asked  to  come  here.  Conditions  so  clearly  indicated  the 
necessity  for  a  comprehensive  constructive  social  program  that 
while  a  much  more  detailed  piece  of  work  might  have  been 
done  in  the  industrial  field,  I  question  whether  such  detail 
would  have  developed  anything  more  salient  or  pertinent  than 
has  been  shown. 

Since  progressive  thinkers  agree  that  preventive  measures 
make  far  more  surely  for  social  betterment  than  anything  cor- 
rective which  has  yet  been  evolved,  I  have  endeavored  to  gather 
together  the  measures  which  have  been  successfully  placed  in 
operation  in  other  communities  and  to  present  to  you  for  con- 
sideration such  of  them  as  fit  your  needs  and  conditions. 

Three  representative  bodies  engaged  in  social  research :  the 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
and  the  Consumer's  League, — all  of  Xew  York  City — cover 
practically  the  entire  field  and  are  always  at  the  service  of 
those  who  wish  information  or  advice. 

More  personal  service  is  needed  everywhere  in  Honolulu. 
The  best  program  possible  to  formulate  soon  becomes  useless 
anywhere  if  carried  on  by  unthinking,  unprogressive,  however 
well-intentioned  methods. 

I  wish  to  cordially  thank  the  members  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee and  of  the  sub-committees  of  the  Survey,  and  not  the 


\YOMEX   AND    GlELS   IN   HOXOLULU. 


least  the  wage-earners  of  the  community  for  the  help  and  en- 
couragement I  have  had.  In  spite  of  queries  which  briefness 
of  time  allotted  to  the  study  made  it  necessary  at  times  to  make 
directly  of  the  latter,  I  have  been  received  with  the  utmost  good 
will  and  helpfulness  by  workers  of  all  nationalities. 

I  am  especially  indebted  to  the  books  of  Miss  Josephine  Gold- 
mark,  Fatigue  and  Efficiency;  and  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Beardsley 
Butler,  Women  and  the  Trades,  for  valuable  information  and 
suggestion.  ^To  one  interested  in  the  welfare  of  wage-earners 
can  fail  to  have  his  vision  widened  and  clarified  by  these  two 
pieces  of  work,  prepared  with  infinite  devotion  and  infinite 
care  in  the  service  of  humanity  both  employing  and  employed. 


TILE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  or1 


FOREWORD 

There  is  a  world  movement  in  uplift  work  for  women.  Along 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  Hawaii  is  awaking  to  this  call.  In 
all  lines  of  endeavor  there  must  be  a  working  plan.  But  first 
must  be  facts  "writ  large"  and  plain.  In  view  of  this  interest 
and  the  desire  to  do  a  vital  work  for  the  wage-earning  girls 
and  women  of  Honolulu,  the  Trustees  of  Kaiulani  Home  se- 
cured the  services  of  a  trained  investigator,  Miss  Frances  E. 
Blascoer  of  New  York  City,  to  make  a  study  of  industrial  con- 
ditions among  the  working  girls  of  Honolulu  and  to  present 
a  plan  for  the  organization  of  a  Vocational  Bureau  here  in  the 
islands. 

With  the  coming  of  Miss  Blascoer  the  vision  grew;  a  social 
survey  was  attempted,  a  survey  which  should  be  the  means  of 
presenting  to  citizens  and  social  workers  the  real  state  of  in- 
dustrial and  housing  conditions;  the  character  of  the  amuse- 
ments offered  to  our  community;  facts  anent  dependent  chil- 
dren ;  facts  concerning  the  devastation  of  the  social  evil. 

Keligious,  moral,  intellectual,  professional  and  vocational  ed- 
ucation; community  hygiene;  sanitary  regulations;  the  beauti- 
fying of  Honolulu ;  all  these  demand  the  concerted  action  of 
women  and  men.  And  then,  too,  there  is  the  "call  of  the  chil- 
dren" that  comes  with  such  strength  of  appeal  from  the  find- 
ings of  the  Juvenile  Court.  The  dependent  child  must  be  con- 
sidered. The  crimes  that  imperil  the  virtue  of  unprotected 
little  girls  must  not  be  hidden.  The  fact  must  be  faced  of  the 
incursion  of  Hawaii  by  large  numbers  of  unmarried  men  and 
the  accompanying  menace  to  young  women.  Unquestionably, 
the  conditions  under  which  girls  and  women  work  should  be 
known  by  the  public. 

Churches,  associations,  clubs,  individual  philanthropists, 
should  have  accurate  knowledge  of  social  conditions;  that  pau- 
perizing may  be  avoided  and  that  the  waste  of  duplication  in 
charitable  work  may  be  avoided.  Undoubtedly  more  light  is 


WOMEX   AXD   GlBLS   IN    HoXOLULU. 


needed  for  the  conduct  of  benevolent  enterprises,  perhaps  not 
more  giving,  but  more  "efficient  giving." 

Miss  Blascoer's  report  on  the  industrial  conditions  of  women 
and  girls,  it  is  believed,  will  prove  a  basis  for  the  working  out 
of  many  programs  for  community  betterment.  May  it  prove 
rich  in  suggestion  to  the  women  of  Honolulu.  May  all  put 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  task  of  solving  the  industrial  prob- 
lem of  the  girls  and  women  in  our  midst,  and  may  it  give  to 
those  who  earnestly  seek,  a  mission,  a  vision  of  great  oppor- 
tunities. To  those  who  give  and  to  those  who  receive,  may 
there  result  a  meeting,  not  at  the  "crossroads"  of  mistrust  and 
suspicion,  but  on  the  "main  traveled  thoroughfare"  which  leads 
to  mutual  helpfulness.  Hasten  the  day  of  its  arriving ! 

IDA  M.  POPE, 
President,  Board  of  Trustees  of  Kaiulani  Home. 


10  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 

TO   THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES  OF  KAIULANI 
HOME  FOR  GIRLS 

The  Industrial  Committee  of  the  Social  Survey  is  composed 
of  the  following  members : — 
Bishop  Restarick, 
Miss  Ida  M.  Pope, 
Father  Stephen, 
Dr.  Dor  emus  Scudder, 
Professor  Edgar  Wood, 
Mrs.  May  Wilcox, 
President  A.  F.  Griffiths, 
Miss  Kemp  (who  takes  Miss  Boshers  place), 
Mrs.  Walter  F.  Frear, 
Mrs.  Frederick  J.  Lowrey, 
Miss  Louise  Gulick, 
Miss  Nora  Sturgeon, 
Mrs.  Francis  M.   Swanzy,  Chairman. 

Its  mission  of  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  working  girls 
and  women  in  Honolulu  has  been  conducted  by  three  sub-com- 
mittees, viz. — 

(1)  On  Conditions  in  Homes. 

(2)  On  Conditions  of  Work. 

(3)  On  Conditions  of  Recreations  and  Amusements. 
The  first  work  done  was  in  the  way  of  inquiry  into  certain 

individual  cases  presented  by  Miss  Blascoer ;  this  brought  help- 
ful results.  A  seamstress  inquiry  was  made  by  Mesdames 
Frear,  Lowrrey,  Wilcox  and  Swanzy,  in  which  250  circulars 
were  sent  out.  The  various  responses  emphasize  strongly  the 
need  of  a  training  school  for  unskilled  workers  in  this  line.  A 
stenographer  and  typewriter  inquiry  was  conducted  by  Pro- 
fessor Wood,  assisted  by  Messrs.  George  R.  Carter,  Walter  Dil- 
lingham,  A.  F.  Judd,  G.  P.  Wilder  and  W.  H.  Baird,  tempo- 
rary members  of  the  Sub-committee  on  Conditions  of  Work 
and  constituting  a  representative  group  of  business  men  espe- 
cially interested.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  as  well  as  most 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  11 


valuable  inquiry  was  that  into  the  social  activities  of  the  com- 
munity, its  Recreations  and  Amusements.  President  Griffiths 
prepared  a  list  of  the  Public  Amusements  and,  assisted  by  some 
twenty-six  persons,  undertook  the  investigation  of  the  theatres, 
moving  picture  shows,  dance  halls,  and  parks.  Mrs.  Frear  per- 
sonally made  a  most  exhaustive  inquiry  into  the  social  activi- 
ties of  the  many  Churches  of  Honolulu,  and  Misses  Bosher 
and  Kemp  did  the  same  for  the  Schools;  Miss  Gulick  did  the 
work  for  the  Missions  and  Settlements,  Mrs.  Lowrey  for  the 
several  Miscellaneous  Associations,  while  Mrs.  Swanzy  collected 
information  regarding  the  fifty-odd  Lodges  and  Fraternal  Or- 
ganizations. 

Meetings  of  the  Committee  and  the  Sub-committees  were 
held  during  the  months  of  July,  August,  September,  and  Oc- 
tober; the  last,  of  the  committee  as  a  whole,  was  wrell  attended 
and  the  discussion  in  connection  with  the  outline  of  a  construc- 
tive program  kindly  given  by  Miss  Blascoer  proved  highly 
profitable.  The  reports  of  the  sub-committees  have  been  turned 
in  to  Miss  Blascoer,  whose  digest  of  conditions  she  presents  to 
your  Board.  A  slight  sketch  of  the  reaction  of  this  industrial 
inquiry  on  the  persons  who  took  part  in  it  may,  however,  be 
of  interest.  Without  exception  the  effect  of  this  work  has  been 
most  stimulating  and  beneficial,  so  that  it  may  safely  be  said 
that  whatever  the  final  outcome  to  the  community  of  the  Social 
Survey,  each  individual  of  this  committee  has  been  helped  to 
a  better  knowledge  of  existing  conditions  and  to  a  broader  out- 
look on  life.  Especially  for  the  lay  members  windows  have 
been  opened  in  various  directions.  May  I  quote  an  opinion 
or  two?  One  says: — "This  inquiry  has  aroused  interest.  We 
have  learned  how  other  people's  work  runs  along  the  same  lines 
as  ours ;  there  has  been  too  much  of  'going  it  alone.7  "  An- 
other:— "It  has  been  a  decided  help  and  stirred  interest  and 
work;  it  has  promoted  discussion  and  information  generally." 

The  School  inquiry,  which  elicited  a  very  generous  and  valu- 
able response,  in  several  cases  of.  public  school  teachers  proved 
a  direct  stimulus  and  assistance  in  affording  opportune  sugges- 


12  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  or 


tion  for  ways  of  recreation  and  amusement ;  while  the  fact  that 
an  extensive  work  is  done  by  the  Lodges  and  Fraternal  Organ- 
izations was  made  evident  by  that  inquiry — a  work  that  is 
kindly  as  well  rs  charitable,  a  work  that  is  conducive  to  the 
development  of  friendly  feeling  and  good  will  towards  men. 
The  social  activities  of  these  societies  also  cover  a  large  field. 
The  Church  inquiry  showed  that  an  astonishing  amount  is  done 
among  some  of  our  Honolulu  congregations  for  the  welfare  and 
wholesome  amusement  of  young  people  and  adults  ,and  the 
Church  of  Latter  Day  Saints  may  be  cited  as  particularly 
active  in  looking  after  its  people  on  week-da^s  as  well  as  Sun- 
days. 

One  of  our  women  members  states  that  she  finds  her  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  welfare  of  working  girls  greatly  broad- 
ened and  now  has  a  better  idea  of  the  needs  of  girl  s  from  poor 
homes,  particularly  those  who  have  had  few  opportunities.  Tn 
connection  with  the  work  of  the  Industrial  Committee  several 
Amusement  Circles  for  girls  have  been  started  in  different  parts 
of  town  by  Miss  Xora  Sturgeon  and  a  band  of  volunteer  help- 
ers, and  interest  in  this  line  of  effort  has  been  directly  incited 
among  others  who  Avere  drawn  into  the  detail  of  investigation. 

Finally,  Dr.  Scudder  says  that  he  has  been  thinking  along 
these  lines  for  twenty  years  and  feels  that  this  industrial  in- 
quiry will  be  of  immense  value  in  bringing  to  the  notice  of 
many  who  are  also  interested,  a  tangible  plan  of  action  as  the 
result  of  knowledge  of  conditions.  He  intends  sneaking  on  the 
necessity  for  child  labor  laws,  to  be  enacted  by  the  next  Legis- 
lature, so  that  the  deplorable  conditions  existing  in  other  coun- 
tries need  never  be  known  here,  and  he  will  endeavor  to  enlist 
the  sympathy  and  influence  of  his  congregation.  His  own  in- 
terest has  been  quickened,  and  he  believes  that  the  Kaiulani 
Home  Board  should  be  heartily  congratulated  on  having  been 
the  means  of  instigating  an  inquiry  which  it  is  hoped  will  crys- 
tallize into  some  definite  and  concerted  program  for  the  bet- 
terment of  social  and  industrial  conditions  in  Hawaii  nei. 

JrLJE    JCDD    SWANZY, 

October  29,  191*2.  Chairman. 


WOMEX    AXD    GlRLS   IX   HoXOLULU.  13 


GENERAL  STATEMENT 

To  TIIK  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  KAIULAXI  HOME,,  AXD 
MEMBERS  OF  THE  CITIZENS'  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  HO- 
NOLULU SOCIAL  SURVEY. 

In  this  crossroads  community  of  Honolulu — a  community 
where  defying  Kipling,  not  only  the  East  and  West,  but  also 
the  North  and  South  meet  (and  like  one  another)  there  are 
almost  as  many  races  and  admixtures  represented  as  a  man 
has  fingers  and  toes. 

A  girl  born  of  a  mother  Avhose  blood  is  half-Hawaiian  and 
half-Chinese,  and  of  a  Norwegian  father,  works  side  by  side 
on  the  one  hand  with  a  Korean  maiden  and  on  the  other  with 
a  young  woman  who  is  negro-American  through  one  parent 
and  German-Hawaiian  through  another.  The  daughter  of  a 
Portuguese-Japanese  mother  and  an  American  father  school- 
mates with  the  child  of  a  Basuto  woman  and  an  Englishman; 
while  side  by  side  Portuguese,  Porto  Rican,  Japanese,  Hawai- 
ian, Filipino  and  Negro,  with  all  these  and  other  inter-racial 
variations,  eat  their  lunches  side  by  side  in  the  pineapple  can- 
neries and  laundries.  Schools,  athletic  teams  and  other  ac- 
tivities show  the  same  racial  composition. 

And  quite  as  assorted  as  the  blood  is  apt  to  be  the  mode  of 
life,  dress  and  thought  of  this  polyglot  population.  One  sees 
a  Chinese  woman  in  her  charming  native  costume  of  brocaded 
silk,  her  'hair  carefully  pomaded  and  profusely  ornamented, 
while  her  feet  (not  by  any  means  the  "golden-lilies"  so  rapidly 
passing  into  oblivion)  of  the  small-footed  Chinese  are  encased 
in  silk  hose  and  patent  leather  pumps.  Furthermore,  she  leads 
by  the  hand  a  small  daughter  in  full  American  panoply,  not 
omitting  the  butterfly  bow  of  ribbon  in  her  hair.  If  followed 
to  her  home  she  will  be  found  eating  her  bowl  of  rice  or  stewed 
mushrooms  with  a  spoon,  instead  of  the  historic  chop-sticks,  her 
children  doing  the  same  or  more  likely  making  their  fingers 
do  duty. 


14  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  or 


Or,  one  meets  a  Japanese  man,  smiling  with  affectionate 
fatuity  at  the  infant  he  carries  in  his  arms;  his  own  kimonoed 
and  sandalled  person  topped  with  a  regulation  Panama  hat. 
Or  again,  one  attends  a  suffrage  meeting  with  the  audience 
made  up  of  Hawaiian,  Chinese  and  women  of  other  national- 
ities, and  listens  to  the  familiar  appeals  for  equal  pay  for 
equal  work;  amendments  to  the  property  laws;  reduction  of 
infant  mortality;  more  schools.  And  so  on,  until  one  is  per- 
meated with  a  fine  glow  of  wonder  at  the  universality  of  it  all, 
the  "getting  together"  which  is  the  surest  promise  of  world 
peace,  however  much  one  may  from  an  aesthetic  standpoint 
regret  certain  of  the  departures. 

Then,  too,  the  workrooms,  public  utilities,  public  amuse- 
ments (and  very  generally  acquaintances  'and  friendships) 
untrammeled  by  racial  boundaries,  cause  one  to  wonder  anew 
not  alone  at  the  ease  with  which  Honolulu  has  dispensed  with 
those  boundaries  but  also  at  the  fact  that  in  this  year  of  our 
Lord  they  still  prevail  in  the  caste-ridden  communities  of  the 
mainland.  One  says  prevail  rather  than  exist  advisedly,  be- 
cause race  prejudice  undoubtedly  exists  in  Honolulu,  and  is 
openly  expressed.  Thus  far,  however,  the  women  and  girls 
of  Honolulu  are  unhampered  in  their  opportunities,  and  no 
man's  right  to  decent  public  courtesy  is  violated  by  race  feel- 
ing. An  Hawaiian  incompetent  is  equally  liable  to  be  replaced 
with  a  Portuguese,  a  Chinese,  a  Japanese,  or  what  not. 

Certain  of  the  minor  industries  employ  no  Japanese  or 
Chinese  help,  fearing  that  a  knowledge  of  processes  will  lead 
to  "unfair  competition" ;  but  on  the  other  hand  shops  manned 
by  the  Orientals  in  these  very  same  industries  are  springing 
up  all  over  the  city.  And  not  only  do  they  spring  up,  but  one 
finds  they  usually  stay. 

Honolulu,  in  its  industrial  development,  will  need  to  con- 
sider the  two-fold  life,  as  it  were,  of  the  normal  and  the  tourist 
population.  The  small  shop,  along  various  lines  described 
more  in  detail  under  constructive  suggestions,  seems  in  fact 
the  best  means  of  taking  care  of  the  workers  who  might  be 


WOMEX   AXD   GlELS   IX    HoXOLULU.  15 


trained  in  the  needle  trades  an  dother  kindred  occupations, 
and  for  whom  there  is  no  opportunity  to  secure  stenographic 
positions,  or  for  clerical  or  shop  work. 

For  the  unskilled  worker,  Dr.  E.  V.  Wilcox  of  the  Federal 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  who  is  the  sponsor  for  the 
algaroba  industry  is  said  to  see  the  same  chance  in  a  probable 
kukui-nut  industry.  Dr.  AVilcox  is  quoted  in  the  morning 
paper  as  follows : 

"Hawaii  once  did  a  big  business  in  the  exportation  of 
kukui  oil/7  he  says,  "the  old  customs  records  of  the  fifties 
showr  that  as  high  as  ten  thousand  gallons  were  exported 
some  years.  Kukui  oil  is  a  valuable  paint  oil,  being 
better  than  the  best  linseed  and  worth  here  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  linseed  at  least  a  dollar  a  gallon.  The  cake, 
after  the  oil  has  been  expressed,  is  a  valuable  fertilizing 
product. 

i%I  am  working  now  to  see  what  percentage  of  oil  can 
be  extracted  from  the  nut  commercially  and  also  getting 
figures  on  the  cost  of  gathering,  manufacturing  and  such. 
To  put  the  kukui  industry  on  its  feet,  all  it  needs  is  for 
someone  to  go  into  the  business  with  capital  enough  to  buy 
the  entire  crop  and  to  install  machinery  to  crush  and 
press  it.  There  are  thousands  of  tons  of  kukui  all  over 
the  mountains  and  the  gathering  of  these  will  give  work 
to  the  same  class  of  poeple  as  have  found  the  algaroba 
bean  picking  such  a  godsend.  In  Hawaii  alone  we  use  a 
great  deal  of  paint  oil  and  there  should  be  ready  market 
here.  Hawaii  imported  fifty  thousand  gallons  of  linseed 
oil  in  the  last  fiscal  year.  If  we  could  have  substituted 
kukui  oil,  the  Territory  would  have  fifty  thousand  dollars 
more  in  circulation,  for  last  year  alone,  much  of  it  in 
circulation  among  the  very  poor." 

Various  business  men  have  suggested  the  need  for  a  paper 
box  factory;  and  it  does  not  seem  unlikely  that  such  an  estab- 
lishment will  soon  be  added  to  the  industries  giving  employ- 


16  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


ment  to  unskilled  labor.     A  silk  mill  is  rumored,  but  nothing 
definite  can  be  learned  concerning  the  reality  of  the  rumor. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  the  healthy  prosperity  and  progressive 
spirit  of  the  city;  but  those  interested  in  the  development  of 
Honolulu  in  its  broader  sense  will  find  it  necessary  to  consider 
the  questions  of  public  health  involved  in  long  working  hours 
for  women  and  girls,  and  in  the  labor  of  children;  questions 
of  public  intelligence  and  citizenship  bound  up  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  night  schools  and  public  recreation  centers — of 
public  morals  as  related  to  more  opportunity,  better  wages, 
and  better  training  to  be  wives  and  mothers,  rather  than  sub- 
jection by  unemployment,  less  than  a  living  wage,  and  neglect 
to  the  temptations  held  forth  by  soldier,  tourist  and  citizen. 


AND   (jrlKLS  IN   HONOLULU. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  SUGGESTIONS 

It  is  only  five  years  ago  since  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  com- 
menced the  investigation  which  was  the  first  exhaustive  at- 
tempt to  interpret  an  industrial  community  to  employers  oi 
labor,  as  well  as  to  the  community  at  large;  and  since  the 
publication  of  Miss  Butler's  Women  and  the  Trades  in  1909 — 
the  first  of  the  six  volumes  of  the  Survey  to  appear — more 
than  one  city  has  made  inquiry  into  the  conditions  under 
which  the  women  and  girls  of  the  community  were  earning 
their  livelihood.  Notable  among  these  inquirers  have  been 
those  made  by  the  Women's  City  Club  of  Chicago,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation;  by  the  Kansas  "City 
Board  of  Public  Welfare,  which  began  in  February,  1911, 
and  is  still  in  process ;  and  by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  for 
Birmingham,  Ala.,  the  latter  being  a  reportorial  survey  rather 
than  the  intensive  investigation  made  in  Pittsburg. 

Five  years  before  any  of  these  surveys  were  undertaken, 
however,  a  committee  composed  of  sociologists,  economists, 
philanthropists  and  educators  not  only  made  a  special  investi- 
gation of  the  workrooms  of  New  York  City,  but  reached  con- 
clusions which  concretely  express  at  any  rate  the  salient-points 
brought  out  by  every  survey  which  has  since  been  made:  (1) 
that  wages  of  unskilled  labor  were  declining  and  in  most 
cases  insufficient  to  maintain  the  worker  according  to  the  mini- 
mum community  standard  of  living;  (2)  that  while  there 
were  in  many  directions  good  opportunities'  for  skilled  labor, 
the  supply  was  inadequate;  (3)  that  the  condition  of  the 
young,  inexpert  working  girls  must  be  ameliaroated  by:  the 
opening  of  training  classes  for  those  who  have  reached  the  age 
to  obtain  working  papers;  and  later  experience  has  shown, 
(4)  that  a  vocational  bureau  established  in  connection  with 
the  public  schools  tends  to  help  girls  make  the  most  of  their 
equipment  and  guides  them  away  from  the  occupations  which 
do  not  offer  the  right  sort  of  opportunity. 

The   survey  in  Honolulu  confirms  the  conclusions  reached 


18  TlIE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


in  other  communities  only  partially.  Here  the  wages  of  un- 
skilled labor  are  advancing,  although  they  are  still  insufficient 
to  maintain  the  worker  according  to  the  minimum  community 
standard  of  living,  for  the  reason  that  the  only  occupation  in 
which  any  number  of  unskilled  girls  and  women  are  at  present 
employed,  i.  e.  the  canneries,  affords  them  employment  during 
only  four  months  of  the  year.  The  second  finding,  that  while 
there  are  in  many  directions  good  opportunity  for  skilled 
labor  the  supply  is  inadequate,  is  true  here  only  partially. 
There  are  only  two  occupations,  that  of  seamstress  and  that 
of  stenographer  which  offer  opportunity  to  any  number,  and 
in  each  there  is  every  indication  that  at  least  fifty  more  ex- 
perienced workers  could  be  used  without  crowding  the  present 
workers..  The  third  finding,  that  the  condition  of  young,  in- 
expert working  girls  must  be  ameliorated  by  the  opening  of 
training  classes  for  those  who  have  reached  the  age  to  obtain 
working  papers,  applies  unqualifiedly  in  Honolulu;  but  their 
condition  must  be  ameliorated  in  a  number  of  other  ways 
as  well.  Honolulu  is  faced,  in  fact,  with  the  unique  problem 
of  evolving  new  enterprises  to  take  care  of  its  women  and  girl 
workers,  in  addition  to  creating  the  machinery  for  dealing 
with  those  now  in  existence  according  to  the  most  progressive 
methods  in  operation  elsewhere. 

Fortunately  the  survey  has  uncovered  community  needs  un- 
filled, as  well  as  suggested  avenues  of  employment  which  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  could  be  made  profitable  with  in- 
telligent management ;  and  with  this  in  mind,  together  with  the 
possibilities  of  creating  other  preventive  and  educational  social 
machinery,  the  following  suggestions  are  made : 

!MUSLIN    UNDERWEAR   FACTORY. 

A  factory  for  the  manufacture  of  muslin  underwear,  sheets, 
pillow  cases,  mosquito  nets,  starting  with  not  more  than  ten 
employes. 

A  canvass  of  the  five  leading  dry-goods  shops  showed  that 
there  is  undoubtedly  a  market  for  a  sufficient  amount  of  under- 


\YOMEX  AXD  GIRLS  ix  HONOLULU.  19 


wear  alone  to  keep  a  factory  busy  at  least  six  months  in  the 
year.  This  is  especially  true  since  the  pake  shops  making  these 
articles  are  finding  it  difficult  to  obtain  help,  the  Chinese  boys 
preferring  to  go  into  the  mercantile  shops  and  factories.  A 
number  of  small  Japanese  shops  for  the  manufacture  of  shirts 
and  shirt-waists  are  finding  their  work  profitable ;  but  the  manu- 
facture of  underwear  requires  organizing  and  concentrating. 

In  addition  to  the  dry-goods  shops  in  the  regular  shopping 
district,  a  cheaper  grade  of  underwear  could  be  sold  to  the 
shops  in  the  Oriental  section  of  the  city,  which  now  carry  a 
regular  line  of  American  underwear  at  prices  considerably 
above  those  asked  on  the  mainland.  For  instance,  a  night- 
gown selling  at  $1.00  in  San  Francisco  brings  $1.35  or  even 
$1.50  here. 

Such  an  establishment  should  be  managed  by  two  trained 
people ;  one  combining  the  office  detail  and  selling  end  with 
the  help  of  a  stenographer  and  bookkeeper ;  the  other  designing 
and  cutting,  and  in  charge  of  employing  and  directing  the 
working  force.  For  the  latter  position  it  might  be  possible 
to  secure  a  \voman ;  but  someone  with  training  and  practical 
experience  in  the  underwear  business  would  be  indispensable. 

Managers  of  the  dry-goods  establishments  in  Honolulu  say 
that  if  the  raw  materials  were  purchased  direct  from  the 
factory,  they  believe  the  enterprise  would  be  successful.  A 
few  well-made,  well-cut  articles  to  start  with  would  be  more 
desirable  than  a  great  variety,  they  say.  A  display  room  to 
which  the  community  might  be  invited,  would  be  desirable,  and 
would  tend  to  create  a  demand  for  the  articles  made. 

It  has  also  been  suggested  in  connection  with  such  a  factory 
that  unfinished  overalls  in  large  quantities — 10,000  dozen- 
could  be  had  for  finishing  from  San  Francisco,  where  there  is 
difficulty  under  the  new  eight-hour  law  in  getting  the  work 
done.  This  class  of  work  is,  however,  usually  the  poorest  paid 
of  any  of  the  home  industries,  and  the  matter  should  be  care- 
fully looked  into. 

The  present  demand  (yearly)  in  the  five  establishments 
canvassed  is  as  follows: 


20 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


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WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  IN  HONOLULU.  21 


AN  HAWAIIAN  SHOP 

A  tour  of  the  local  curio  and  art  shops  discloses  many  choice 
articles  typically  Hawaiian  in  their  manufacture  or  character. 
There  are  to  be  found  everywhere  quantities  of  tapas,  lauhala 
mats,  calabashes  and  leis,  but  in  so  heterogeneous  a  mass  and 
so  mixed  with  other  things  that  their  appeal  is  apt  to  miscarry. 
Tourists  find  it  difficult  to  select  mementos  to  carry  away 
with  them,  and  so  much  valuable  patronage  is  lost. 

There  are  infinite  possibilities  in  an  establishment  of  this 
kind  if  managed  by  a  person  of  good  judgment  and  artistic 
taste.  A  careful  assemblage  of  the  above  articles,  groups  of 
the  really  artistic  photographs  of  native  types  to  be  found  in 
some  of  the  shops,  framed  in  the  beautiful  koa  or  kou  woods ; 
together  with  other  wares  which  might  be  easily  evolved,  would 
make  an  attractive  showing.  Home-made  candy  specialties 
and  other  delicacies  characteristic  of  the  islands — creamed 
cocoanuts;  pineapple  candies;  home-made  guava  jelly;  mango 
jam;  chutney — all  are  in  demand.  A  tea  room,  with  a  young 
woman  to  check  packages  for  shoppers,  has  also  been  suggested 
by  a  number  of  people.  A  poi  luncheon  (which  is  nowhere 
available  at  present)  on  steamer  days  would  be  a  novelty. 

An  article  in  the  Sunday  Advertiser  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  no  fruit  shop  in  Honolulu  made  a  specialty  of  Ha- 
waiian fruits;  and  suggested  that  lauhala  baskets  filled  with 
choice  mangoes,  Hawaiian  oranges,  bananas,  strawberry  guavas, 
mountain  apples,  figs  and  papaias  wrapped  in  ti  leaves,  would 
be  acceptable  gifts  to  departing  friends.  Any  plan  of  this 
kind,  however,  would  depend  on  the  extermination  of  the 
Mediterranean  fruit-fly  whose  depredations  have  caused  an 
embargo  to  be  laid  on  all  fruits  and  vegetables  from  the  Island 
of  Oahu. 

Hawaiian  shop  attendants,  with  Chinese  and  Japanese  girls 
serving  tea,  would  be  added  attractions. 

These  features  should  furnish  material  for  advertisements 


22  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


to  be  placed  on  steamers  and  in  the  literature  of  the  promo- 
tion committee. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  give  the  regulation  store  building 
the  distinctively  Hawaiian  atmosphere  which  ought  to  go  far 
toward  making  a  success  of  such  an  enterprise:  and  an  at- 
tractive cottage  with  a  certain  amount  of  ground  space  would 
furnish  a  most  appropriate  setting. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  23 


PROPOSED  TRADE  SCHOOL 

The  investigation  into  the  condition  of  working  women  and 
girls  in  Honolulu  was  made  primarily  with  a  viewr  to  estab- 
lishing a  trade  school  and  special  attention  was  therefore  paid 
to  community  needs ;  for  in  organizing  a  school  of  this  kind, 
it  is  of  first  importance  to  suit  the  course  of  training  to  those 
needs.  The  ideal  of  the  present  day  vocational  school  is  more- 
over not  only  to  train  a  worker  to  become  self-supporting  in 
her  environment,  but  to  give  her  training  in  a  sufficient  variety 
of  allied  occupations  to  enable  her  to  shift  from  one  to  another 
in  case  of  need.  In  a  large  city,  for  instance,  she  is  taught 
the  use  of  electric  power  machine  operating,  which  enables 
her  in  their  respective  seasons  to  work  on  women's  underwear, 
ready-made  dresses,  straw-sewing  of  men's  and  women's  hats, 
and  a  variety  of  other  occupations. 

She  is  taught  her  right  relation  to  her  employer,  to  her 
fellow-worker,  and  to  her  work;  to  value  health  and  how  to 
keep  it;  to  make  use  of  whatever  previous  education  she  may 
have  had:  in  general,  to  develop  into  a  better  woman  as  well 
as  a  better  worker. 

These  were  the  ideals  formulated  by  the  founders  of  the 
Manhattan  Trade  School  for  Girls  in  Xew  York  City — the 
first  trade  school  to  be  established  in  America,  and  with  a 
curriculum  applied  to  local  needs,  they  will  serve  quite  as  ad- 
mirably for  Honolulu. 

The  situation  seems  to  call  more  than  anything  else  for  the 
tying  up  of  the  threads  connecting  a  vocational  and  employ- 
ment 'bureau,  a  trade  school  and  a  place  for  marketing  the 
product  of  the  workers;  and  a  curriculum  which  would  seem 
to  make  for  the  greatest  success  alon.o*  all  three  lines  is  about 
as  follows: 

1.     Courses  in  the  Needle  Trades: 
Dressmaking. 
Shirtwaists  and  Underwear. 


24  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


Mosquito   Xets. 

Household  articles:  Sheets,  Pillow  Cases,  etc. 
Care  of  clothing  (darning  and    mending). 
Handwork:    Hemstitching,  Embroidery,  Lace-making. 

2.  Fancy  articles : 

Tapas,  leis  of  seeds,  shells,  etc. 

3.  Lauhala  weaving. 

4.  Hat  weaving. 

5.  Gardening. 

6.  Flower  cultivation  and  lei-making. 

7.  Fruit  and  vegetable  gardening. 

8.  Cooking : 

Family  cooking  for  girls  who  wish  to  enter  domestic 

service. 

Candy-making. 
Jellies  and  Preserves. 
Cake-making. 

9.  Housekeeping : 
Care  of  bedrooms. 

Cleaning  and  exterminating  vermin. 
10.     Cleaning  gloves  and  laces. 

If  these  courses  could  be  arranged  for  the  morning,  after- 
noon and  evening  they  would  be  available  for  school  girls  and 
working  girls,  as  well  as  for  pupils  who  were  otherwise  un- 
occupied. Courses  N"os.  5  to  10  inclusive,  might  be  offered 
morning  and  afternoon,  and  Nos.  1  to  4  inclusive,  in  the  after- 
noon and  evening.  The  two  sets  of  courses  would  of  course"  re- 
quire separate  staffs  of  instructors ;  I  should  say  two  instructors 
for  each  course. 

An  arrangement  could  no  doubt  be  made  with  the  various 
churches,  settlements,  etc.,  now  giving  elemental' y  sewing  to 
send  to  the  school  the  girls  who  wish  to  make  sewing  their 
profession. 

Practically  all  the  trade  schools  include  hygiene,  physical 
training,  and  most  of  them  have  a  basketball  team.  Local 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  25 


physicians  would  no  doubt  be  glad  to  give  a  course  of  lectures 
at  the  school  and  an  arrangement  might  be  made  with  one  of 
the  Settlements  whereby  its  advance  sewing  course  would  be 
taken  over  in  exchange  for  physical  training  by  the  Settlement 
instructor. 

Trade  schools  have  found  it  both  desirable  and  profitable  to 
market  their  output;  not  only  because  it  gives  the  pupils  an 
immediate  earning  power,  but  also  because  it  encourages  them 
to  put  their  best  efforts  into  their  work  when  they  know  it  is 
to  have  a  place  in  the  scheme  of  things. 

If  an  Hawaiian  shop,  as  suggested  elsewhere,  were  estab- 
lished, it  would  afford  a  market  for  certain  of  the  articles 
made  by  the  pupils  of  the  school — lauhala  mats,  leis,  flowers, 
candy,  preserves,  cake,  etc.  Other  articles  might  be  disposed 
of  at  the  school.  This  is  done  "at  both  the  New  York  and  Bos- 
ton Trade  Schools,  where  sales  are  held  periodically. 

The  successful  establishment  of  an  underwear  factory  would 
as  time  goes  on,  naturally  offer  a  market  for  girls  taking  the 
course  in  Domestic  Art;  while  a  clientele  for  fine  home-made 
candies  could  undoubtedly  be  built  up  after  the  manner  of  the 
Martha  Washington  and  Mary  Elizabeth  shops  in  New  York, 
which  have  developed  from  small  beginnings  with  a  few  cus- 
tomers into  extensive  and  profitable  enterprises. 

It  would  be  desirable  to  have  pupils  take  the  entire  course, 
both  for  wage-earning  purposes  and  for  their  own  development. 
The  course  in  cultivation  of  flowers,  fruits  and  vegetables 
ought  to  be  of  special  value,  for  there  is  much  space  around 
the  cottages,  especially  in  the  poorer  districts,  of  which  no 
use  is  made.  Records  kept  by  one  of  the  schools  which  has 
done  some  work  in  home  gardening  show  that  the  usual  fate 
of  the  sprouting  seeds  was  to  feed  the  chickens.  No  instruc- 
tion was  given,  however,  in  methods  of  protection  against  either 
chickens  or  insects.  The  Federal  Experiment  Station  would 
help  in  this  matter. 

Roger  W.  Babson,  statistician,  economist  and  the  last  author- 
ity on  the  high  cost  of  living  declares  that  "our  real  need  is 


26  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


for  more  farmers  and  fewer  politicians.  When  every  man 
makes  use  of  his  own  back  yard,  the  cost  of  living  will  be 
reduced  and  the  ideals  talked  of  by  the  progressive  will  be 
actually  accomplished — but  not  until  then."1 

The  course  outlined  is  somewhat  similar  to  the  scheme  of 
education  given  so  successfully  in  Hampton  Institute,  Va., 
which  is  at  once  the  pioneer  and  the  ranking  institution  for 
the  vocational  training  of  primitive  people.  Their  girls,  while 
given  very  thorough  industrial  training  are  not  given  this 
training,  however,  with  the  idea  of  putting  them  into  the 
trades.  "The  aim  and  purpose  is  primarily  to  develop  home- 
makers,  women  who  can  go  back  to  their  homes  in  the  rural 
districts  and  teach  their  people  howT  to  keep  their  homes  clean 
and  sanitary,  how  to  care  for  their  children  and  for  the  sick 
and  aged,  how  to  make  and  keep  in  repair  their  own  clothing, 
and  how  to  do  the  innumerable  other  things  that  should  be 
done  in  a  well-regulated  home,"  says  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  in  his  report  on  Industrial  Education.2 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  General  Arm- 
strong, the  founder  of  Hampton,  was  the  son  of  Hawaii's  first 
Commissioner  of  Education,  whose  reports  advocated  this  same 
training  for  Hawaiians  in  the  early  missionary  days. 


1Current  Literature,  August,  1912,  p.   166. 
2Twenty-fifth  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
1910,  p.  321. 


WOMEX  AXD  GIRLS  ix  HONOLULU.  27 


VOCATIONAL  AND  EMPLOYMENT  BUREAU 

The  establishment  and  intelligent  conduct  of  a  vocational 
employment  bureau  goes  far  to  help  a  community  secure  a  com- 
prehensive grasp  of  its  industrial  situation.  Such  a  bureau 
is  most  efficient  when  officially  connected  with  the  department 
of  public  instruction.  It  may,  however,  be  conducted  by  an 
unofficial  body,  as  in  Cincinnati,  where  it  is  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Charlotte  Schmidlapp  Foundation,  and  in  Boston, 
where  it  had  its  inception,  and  is  still  philanthropically  man- 
aged. There  must,  however,  be  a  sound  Compulsory  Attendance 
School  Law  on  which  to  base  it.  Hawaii's  Law  requiring 
school  attendance  of  all  children  from  six  to  seventeen  years 
of  age  is  admirable;  but  it  is  weakened  by  the  proviso:  "If 
when  a  child  has  reached  the  age  of  twelve  years  and  has  not 
completed  the  fourth  grade  of  the  primary  school  he  shall  be 
eligible  for  instruction  ONLY  in  an  industrial  school/' 

While  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  child  who  has  attended 
school  from  his  sixth  year  until  his  twelfth,  without  reaching 
a  higher  grade  than  the  fourth  primary,  should  undoubtedly  be 
trained  for  an  industrial  occupation;  yet  on  the  other  hand  the 
exemption  from  compulsory  school  attendance  "if  there  is  no 
school  within  four  miles  of  a  child's  home,"  together  with  the 
known  insufficient  school  accommodation  in  parts  of  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  makes  it  easily  possible  for  hundreds  of  children 
to  be  prevented  from  entering  school  until  their  seventh  or 
eighth  year.  In  families  Avho  have  come  to  Honolulu  from 
rural  districts,  children  have  reached  the  age  of  ten  without 
having  been  entered  at  school.  It  is  obviously  unfair,  there- 
fore, to  deprive  the  child  of  an  opportunity  to  receive  an 
education  because  through  no  fault  of  his  he  may  have  been 
retarded  in  his  studies. 

Wherever  there  is  large  foreign  element,  or  where  for  other 
reasons  the  normal  rate  of  progress  is  likely  to  be  departed 
from  by  any  large  number  of  pupils,  the  course  favored  gen- 


28  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


erally  by  educators  is  the  establishment  of  vacation  schools, 
in  which  a  child  who  fails  of  promotion  may  have  instruction 
in  the  studies  needed  to  bring  him  up  with  his  class. 

Study  rooms  in  charge  of  teachers,  in  the  evening,  or  after 
school,  have  also  been  opened  in  districts  where  non-English- 
speaking  parents  are  unable  to  assist  their  children  in  pre- 
paring lessons. 

Matters  of  retardation  and  the  remedies  therefor  are  at 
present  receiving  the  most  careful  attention  of  progressive 
educators.  The  Kussell  Sage  Foundation  and  the  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research  in  ISTew  York,  two  social  investigating 
bodies,  are  seeking  the  best  means  for  removing  disabilities 
which  may  prevent  a  child  from  advancing  in  school  and  so 
of  having  an  opportunity  in  life. 

No  sociological  investigation  of  rural  conditions  has  been 
made  in  Hawaii  for  the  purpose  of  learning  the  exact  extent 
to  which  children  of  the  rural  communities  are  prevented  from 
attending  school,  and  what  actual  bearing  this  has  on  planta- 
tion labor.  It  has  been  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt,  however, 
that  the  negroes  in  the  southern  states  have  left  the  plantations 
mainly  because  their  children  either  did  not  have  any  educa- 
tional facilities,  or  because  the  schools  they  might  or  could 
attend  were  not  up  to  the  standard.  In  a  number  of  instances 
they  built  and  equipped  their  own  schoolhouses. 

A  people  that  cannot  see  a  bettering  of  conditions — not 
alone  economic,  but  individually  broadening  for  their  children 
—is  always  prone  to  be  dissatisfied. 

The  above  clause  in  the  Hawaiian  School  Law  might  be 
changed  to  one  permitting  a  child  who  has  failed  to  make  a 
certain  grade  after  attending  school  a  given  number  of  years, 
to  take  industrial  training  plus  a  certain  number  of  days  of 
school  attendance,  as  this  is  undoubtedly  its  intent. 

The  clause  permitting  a  child  to  leave  school  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  and  go  to  work,  regardless  of  what  grade  has  been 
reached,  is  also  not  in  accordance  with  the  most  progressive 
laws  in  force  elsewhere. 


AXD   GlRLS   IN   HONOLULU.  29 


Cincinnati  has  approached  the  German  continuation  school 
plan  by  passing  a  law  making  it  compulsory  for  a  child  to  be 
either  in  school  or  at  work  after  fifteen,  a  day's  attendance 
at  school  each  week  being  required  until  the  eighteenth  year 
if  the  child  goes  to  work  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  A  certain 
grade  rating  must  have  been  reached,  however,  before  working- 
papers  can  be  obtained  on  this  basis ;  and  the  child  must  also 
pass  a  medical  examination  which  proves  him  to  be  in  fit  phy- 
sical condition  to  become  a  wage-earner. 

Before  working  papers  are  issued,  moreover,  a  position  must 
be  obtained,,  a  signed  card  from  the  prospective  employer  be- 
ing the  basis  on  which  permission  to  work  is  given.  Each 
time  a  position  is  changed  these  papers  are  re-issued,  and  no 
employer  is  permitted  by  law  to  engage  a  boy  or  girl  under 
eighteen  on  papers  issued  to  any  other  employer.  A  physical 
examination  is  made  each  time  the  working  papers  are  re- 
issued in  order  that  it  may  be  noted  what  effect  if  any  an  occu- 
pation is  having  on  a  child's  health. 

A  careful  record  is  kept  of  the  ^child's  family  history,  as 
well  as  of  the  occupation  in  which  he  is  engaged;  and  his 
working  history  if  more  than  one  position  is  held.  This  latter 
gives  the  reason  for  changing,  and  helps  in  the  study  of  a 
child's  capabilities. 

At  the  time  of  graduation  parents  of  each  child  are  sent  a 
circular  by  the  Board  of  Education  in  which  are  described  the 
further  educational  advantages  offered  by  the  city  or  state — 
high  schools,  trade  schools,  etc. — and  the  time  necessary  to  be 
spent  in  each;  also  the  probable  advantages  accruing  from 
each  course.  The  parents  are  asked  to  consult  with  the  voca- 
tional bureau,  which  receives  also  the  report  of  the  teacher 
in  charge  of  vocational  matters  in  each  school. 

With  the  help  of  such  a  bureau  boys  and  girls  have  been 
prevented  from  entering  occupations  offering  no  chance  for 
advancement,  and  have  been  placed  in  line  to  earn  an  adequate 
livelihood.  Where  mental  equipment  justifies  it,  children  who 


30  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


would  otherwise  be  obliged  to  become  wage-earners  are  granted 
scholarships  enabling  them  either  to  take  training  in  a  trade 
school  or  to  continue  their  studies  in  high  school.  This  aid  is 
given  in  Cincinnati  in  the  form  of  a  loan  granted  by  the  Char- 
lottee  Schmidlapp  Foundation.  In  Xew  York  the  scholar- 
ships are  supported  by  a  philanthropic  committee,  connected 
with  the  Henry  Street  Settlement. 

Dean  Herman  Schneider,  of  the  School  of  Engineering  in 
the  University  of  Cincinnati,  has  been  working  out  a  continua- 
tion school  plan  whereby  instead  of  a  trade  school  with  ex- 
pensive equipment  the  students  in  the  School  of  ^Engineering 
are  given  their  shop  training  in  the  factories,  their  instructors 
giving  part  time  to  factory  work  and  part  time  in  the  Uni- 
versity. In  this  way  not  the  least  valuable  lesson  learned  is 
the  knowledge  gained  by  the  University  itself  of  what  methods 
of  instruction  are  actually  of  value  as  applied  to  business 
practice. 

Mr.  Schneider  is  also  giving  much  attention  to  the  question 
of  temperaments  suited  to  various  occupations.  A  highly 
organized  nervous  temperament  cannot  permanently  engage? 
in  enervating  work — i.  e.  work  done  over  and  over  again  by 
each  worker  in  the  smallest  number  of  cubic  feet  of  space — 
without  making  for  the  breakdown  of  the  individual  unless 
the  period  of  work  is  shortened  sufficiently  to  permit  this 
worker  to  engage  in  some  other  form  of  activity  which  will 
counteract  the  effect  of  his  daily  occupation.  This  prescrip- 
tion of  vocation  and  avocation  Mr.  Schneider  conceives  to  be 
the  real  function  of  vocational  guidance;  and  he  freely  con- 
fesses that  he  is  as  yet  far  from  a  solution  of  the  problem. 

In  his  analysis  of  work  he  says:  "It  is  fundamental  that 
mankind  must  do  stimulating  work  or  retrogress.  This  is  the 
bed-rock  upon  wrhich  our  constructive  programs  of  education, 
industry,  sociology — of  living,  must  rest  .  .  .  One  may  safely 
propose  as  a  thesis  that  only  that  civilization  will  prevail  whose 
laws  and  life  conform  most  nearly  of  Natural  Law.  The  worth 
of  our  education,  our  laws,  our  scientific  management  will 


X  AXD  GIRLS  ix  HONOLULU. 


31 


lined  by  the  extent  to  which  they  will  make  clear,  con- 
form with  and  supplement  the  laws  of  work.  Their  test  will 
lie  in  the  degree  to  which  they  are  useful  in  leading  us  safely 
forward  to  better,  brighter  condition  of  work  and  their  basic 
idea  must  be  service  to  the  mass." 


32  THE  INDUSTBIAL  CONDITION  OF 


PUBLIC  AMUSEMENTS 

The  questionnaire  sent  to  the  public  schools,  asking  how 
many  pupils  in  the  classes  belong  to  clubs  or  other  groups  for 
recreational  purposes,  in  the  settlements  and  elsewhere,  brings 
out  the  fact  that,  with  only  one  school  report  missing,  597 
children  out  of  the  6,031  attending  school  in  Honolulu  this 
vear  are  in  such  ways  provided  with  socializing  influence  once 
a  week.  Of  course  many  have  home  surroundings  which  make 
outside  influence  unnecessary.  The  public  playground,  how- 
ever, has  an  attendance  of  over  two  hundred  a  day,  an  indica- 
tion of  what  might  be  expected  in  attendance  if  the  school 
yards  were  equipped  with  playground  apparatus  and  placed 
under  supervision. 

2sTo  social  activities  are  reported  by  the  public  schools  them- 
selves excepting  a  picnic  given  annually  or  semi-annually. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  similar  questionnaire  sent  to  the  private 
schools,  including  those  philanthropically  supported  brought 
forth  the  following  list  of  activities  for  bovs  and  girls: 

Athletic  Teams, 

Baseball  Teams, 

Basketball  Teams, 

Tennis, 

Tramps 

Picnics, 

House  and  Table  Games, 

Piano  Recitals, 

Glee  Club, 

Orchestra  under  Trained  Leader, 

Society  to  Develop  Thoughtfulness  for  other  peoples   (races), 

Oratory   Society, 

Debating  Society, 

Private  Theatricals, 

Travel  Talks,  illustrated, 

Dances, 


AYOMEX   AXD   GlRLS   IAT   HoXOLULU.  33 


Thanksgiving  Offering  to  Poor, 

Flowers  for  Decorating  Soldiers'  Graves. 

Christian  Endeavor  Societies, 

Junior  Auxiliary  to  Board  of  Missions, 

Student's  Council, 

School   Magazine. 

This  very  full  and  comprehensive  program  throws  into  strong- 
relief  the  barrenness  of  the  lives  of  the  students  after  they 
graduate  or  leave  these  institutions,  as  well  as  the  lack  of 
any  like  opportunity  for  development  offered  by  the  com- 
munity to  its  young  people  not  in  private  schools.  These  pro- 
grams will,  it  is  hoped,  be  used  by  any  committee  taking  up 
the  question  of  public  recreation. 

I  have  talked  with  graduates  of  Kamehameha,  who  for- 
tunately have  an  alumnae  association,  and  with  Normal  and 
Punahou  girls,  wrho  found  no  substitute  for  their  basketball, 
tennis,  and  social  life  generally  as  they  lived  it  while  at  school. 
It  is  true  that  Palama  and  Kalihi  Settlements  have  basketball, 
dancing  and  gymnasium  classes;  but  these  institutions  owe  a 
duty  to  the  economically  handicapped  portion  of  the  community 
which  they  are  taxed  to  their  capacity  in  discharging.  I 
question  very  strongly  if  it  is  advisable  to  call  on  philanthropy 
for  the  provision  of  cultural  and  social  activities  for  wage- 
earners.  Is  it  not  rather  philanthropy's  best  service  to 
stimulate  those  who  are  as  yet  unawakened  to  the  possibilities 
of  life,  and  then  pass  them  on  to  the  normal  community  for 
the  development  of  those  possibilities  ? 

An  inquiry  made  by  the  sub-committee  on  public  and  quasi- 
public  amusements — settlements,  churches,  benevolent  societies, 
lodges,  etc. — brought  out  the  usual  social  equipment  of  a  city 
of  this  size.  But  there  is  an  element  which  finds  its  social 
expression  rather  in  independent  groups  made  up  of  congenial 
persons ;  and  where  these  groups  can  be  brought  into  the  public 
school  recreation  center  with  its  library,  gymnasium,  piano  and 
other  activities,  all  under  intelligent  guidance,  a  broad  social 


34  THE  INDUSTRIAL  COXDITIOX  OF 


development  is  possible.  The  church  clubs,  settlement  clubs 
and  benevolent  societies  have  their  normal  membership;  but  it 
is  more  difficult  than  can  be  realized  by  those  who  have  never 
tried,  to  bring  the  other  group  into  this  environment.  It  is 
a  group  that  needs  to  be  provided  for  in  the  community  social 
scheme,  and  other  communities  have  found  that  the  school- 
house  recreation  center  best  cares  for  it. 

Evening  recreation  centers  for  adults  have  been  established 
in  other  cities  at  little  expense.  Once  the  work  of  organizing 
and  equipping  them  is  accomplished,  their  work  goes  on  almost 
of  itself. 

Wherever  evening  schools,  recreation  centers,  playgrounds, 
vacation  schools  and  other  activities  connected  with  the  public 
school  system  have  been  established  it  is  becoming  more  and 
more  apparent  that  measures  making  for  social  betterment  are 
nowhere  else  so  effectively  applied  as  in  the  public  schools. 
Here  is  the  most  democratic  of  all  our  institutions — the  place 
where,  with  a  compulsory  education  law  carefully  enforced, 
100  per  cent,  of  the  coming  generation  of  citizens  may  be 
reached. 

The  result  of  the  sub-committee's  investigation  of  parks 
showed  that  all  were  inadequately  lighted,  with  an  occasional 
concert  forming  the  only  entertainment  offered.  Open  pavilions 
in  the  parks,  with  public  dances  under  proper  supervision  ought 
to  be  an  ideal  means  of  fighting  the  dance  hall  evil  in  Hono- 
lulu. Since  the  recent  passing  of  an  ordinance  regulating 
dance  halls  there  has  been  little  activity  among  them,  the 
most  notorious  remaining  closed.  It  is  thought  that  they  will 
soon  reopen,  and  the  volunteer  supervisors  which  the  ordinance 
provides  will,  it  is  to  be  feared,  find  themselves  faced  with  a 
difficult  problem.  A  dance  hall  ordinance  cannot  be  made 
really  effective  unless  an  argus-eyed  person  is  on  the  premises 
continuously  every  ni^ht  until  it  is  learned  which  managers 
are  to  be  trusted  to  abide  by  the  law.  This  has  been  the  in- 
variable experience  elsewhere. 

The  Settlements,  Missions  and  other  organizations  are  assist- 


WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  IN  HONOLULU.  35 


ing  several  hundred  men  and  a  few  women  to  learn  English  in 
classes  conducted  for  the  most  part  in  crowded  quarters,  and 
taught  by  workers  who  have  many  other  duties  which  are  in 
consequence  neglected. 

The  large  number  in  attendance  at  these  classes,  the  fact 
that  several  Japanese  classes  are  self-supporting  and  that  Ha- 
waiians  are  attending  a  class  intended  for  Chinese  only,  proves 
a  healthy  demand  for  instruction. 

Hawaii  owes  a  peculiar  debt  to  its  foreign  element — to  its 
Portuguese,  Spanish,  Porto  Rican  and  Filipino  population  es- 
pecially, who  are  brought  from  their  native  land  to  perform 
the  work  of  the  country,  but  have  no  opportunity  to  Jearii  its 
language.  Their  children  sometimes  grow  up  to  working  age 
with  only  the  slightest  knowledge  of  English. 

If  it  is  necessary  for  private  philanthropy  to  aid  in  establish- 
ing night  classes  in  English,  there  are  surely  few  better  ways 
in  which  money  could  be  expended.  In  New  York  the  first 
classes  in  English  for  immigrants  were  started  on  the  lower 
East  Side  thirteen  years  ago,  by  private  philanthropy,  and  six 
years  later  were  taken  over  by  the  Board  of  Education.  Day 
classes  were  also  maintained  for  immigrant  children,  who 
were  thus  enabled  to  enter  school  with  a  working  knowledge  of 
English. 

Afternoon  classes  which  household  servants  might  be  able  to 
attend,  and  to  which  could  also  be  sent  the  children  who  were 
backward  in  their  studies  because  of  lack  of  English,  should 
prove  valuable  in  Honolulu. 

The  Department  of  Education  should  not,  however,  be  urged 
to  undertake  any  of  this  work  until  every  child  in  the  Territory 
has  been  provided  with  school  accommodations. 

A  study  made  under  the  auspices  of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research  in  the  recent  Xew  York  School  Inquiry  of  the  Board 
of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  of  that  city,  brought  out  the 
fact  that  there  were  76  agencies  offering  "direct,  continuous  and 
gratuitous  co-operation"  to  the  public  schools.  These  agencies 
included  the  Public  Schools  Athletic  League,  teaching  the  folk- 


36  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


dancing  to  the  children  at  the  recreation  centers;  visiting- 
teachers — the  friendly  visitor  from  the  school  to  the  home — sup- 
plied by  the  Public  Education  Association,  church  societies,  etc. ; 
vacation  schools  for  backward  children  started  by  the  Associa- 
tion for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  and  later  taken 
over  by  the  Board  of  Education ;  and  numerous  other  activities, 
supprted  by  independent  agencies. 

"Helping  School  Children,"  by  Miss  Elsa  Denison,  published 
by  Harper  &  Brother,  and  Perry's  "Wider  Use  of  the  School 
Plant"  published  by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  describes  the 
successful  ways  in  which  communities  have  used  the  school 
plant,  and  in  this  manner  filled  their  needs  without  erecting  ex- 
pensive and  unnecessary  buildings. 


WO.MKX  AXD  GIRLS  i^  HONOLULU.  37 


IWILEI  AND  THE  WORKERS 

(Observations  made  at  visits  during  the  lunch  hour  and  in  the 
evening,  to  the  stockades  immediately  adjoining  the  can- 
neries, where  the  social  evil  has  its  generally  recognized 
being  in  Honolulu.) 

Up  the  long  lane  from  the  railroad  station  and  past  the  peni- 
tentiary; then  some  tumbledown  sheds  in  the  last  stages  of 
decay  but  occupied  by  human  beings ;  next  a  few  cottages,  reas- 
onably well-kept  and  attractive,  all  of  them  rented  for  immoral 
purposes.  Then  the  canneries  themselves.  But  up  this  road, 
almost  half  a  mile  long,  must  come  the  women  and  girls  who 
work  in  the  three  establishments  offering  practically  all  the 
work  obtainable  in  Honolulu  by  unskilled  workers.  The  only 
alternative  to  this  route  is  the  unsafe  one  across  the  railroad 
tracks.  Not  only  must  the  workers  come  this  way,  but  they 
must  return  home  either  through  this  district — meeting  and 
being  accosted  by  soldiers  and  citizens  on  their  way  to  the 
dives — or  else  they  must  cross  the  railroad  tracks,  almost  always 
after  dark,  with  dim  light  down  the  alley  and  no  light  at  all 
across  the  tracks. 

Immediately  beyond  the  canneries  lies  the  remainder  of  the 
Iwilei  district — running  up  almost  to  the  cannery  gates.  In 
this  section  are  the  only  lunch  rooms  available  for  the  cannnery 
employes.  The  girls  and  women  must  either  come  here,  or 
must  bring  their  lunch,  or  purchase  the  sweet  rolls,  cakes, 
candy  and  soda  water  which  are  the  only  refreshments  sold  by 
the  Japanese  who  bring  their  lunch  wagons  to  the  cannery 
premises  at  noon  and  in  the  evening.  Either  course  means  a 
cold  meal  after  five  hours  of  work,  with  no  place  to  sit  down 
and  eat  it. 

The  restaurants  of  the  district  are  surprisingly  clean  and 
all  owned  by  Chinese.  They  fill  to  their  capacity  a  few  mo- 
ments after  12  o'clock  with  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls, 
of  all  nationalities.  The  bill  of  fare  varies  from  coffee  and 


38  TJIE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


rolls  for  five  cents  to  a  dinner : — a  bowl  of  soup  with  bread,  ac- 
companied by  an  egg  or  a  plate  of  stew,  for  fifteen  cents.  A 
( liinese  woman  and  a  child — a  girl  about  ten  years  old — shared 
a  ten  cent  plate  of  rice  and  stew.  Men  and  girls  chaffed  one 
another  familiarly. 

A  tall,  bony  Korean  made  his  lunch  of  coffee  and  sweet 
rolls.  He  said  he  had  had  the  same  thing  for  breakfast,  before 
starting  work  at  7  o'clock,  but  sometimes  varied  this  menu 
with  a  bowl  of  milk.  He  got  his  dinner  at  a  restaurant  in  town 
for  ten  cents.  He  said  he  was  working  his  way  through  school. 

In  another  restaurant  a  Porto  Rican  woman  sat  in  the  corner 
smoking  a  cigarette.  She  spoke  no  English.  Her  neighbor  at 
table  was  a  young  Hawaiian  woman — an  ex-teacher — who  told 
us  she  had  married  and  given  up  her  school;  but  her  husband 
earned  only  $35  a  month  driving  a  baker's  wagon,  so  she 
worked  during  the  canning  season.  This  particular  restaurant 
stands  between  two  of  the  most  notorious  resorts  in  the  district. 

As  we  left,  a  small,  thin  Hawaiian  girl  was  about  to  enter  the 
shop  to  buy  a  sweet  to  finish  lunch.  She  and  her  grandmother 
worked  together  in  one  of  the  canneries.  She  had  earned  $±.50 
the  week  previous.  She  said  she  was  sixteen  years  old,  but 
she  did  not  look  fourteen.  Her  grandmother,  between  canning 
seasons,  earns  $3  a  week  packing  coffee.  The  grandfather  has 
asthma  and  cannot  work.  The  girl  said  they  had  only  poi  for 
each  of  their  three  meals,  sometimes  with  a  little  dried  fish 
or  an  onion  for  flavoring. 

The  women  of  the  district,  when  asked  about  the  cannery  girls' 
presence  in  the  district,  spontaneously  expressed  the  opinion 
that  "it  was  wrong  for  the  little  ones  to  come  here."  They  said 
keepers  of  houses  in  the  district  frequently  accosted  the  girls  in 
the  restaurants;  but  they  had  not  seen  any  of  the  girls  go  into 
the  houses. 

One  of  the  women  told  us  of  a  little  Filipino  wife,  only 
fifteen  years  old,  who  worked  in  the  cannery  with  her  husband ; 
but  he  had  been  sick  and  when  the  baby  came  they  had  no  furni- 
ture and  there  was  no  money  to  provide  the  necessaries  for 


o^IEX   AXD   GlKLS  IN   HONOLULU. 


39 


either  mother  or  child.  "And  so"  said  M—  -  "we  women  just 
got  together  and  made  the  baby  clothes,  and  got  her  a  bed  and 
some  things.  Why,"  she  added  shamefacedly,  "you'd  have 
thought  it  was  a  sewing  circle,  to  look  at  us." 

We  saw  what  I  was  told  is  a  very  rare  thing  indeed — a  pure- 
blooded  Hawaiian  girl  in  one  of  the  resorts.  We  SDoke  to  her, 
and  the  Humane  Officer,  who  was  with  me,  and  who  spoke  her 
native  tongue,  said  the  girl  appeared  to  be  Aveakrninded. 

The  suggestion  was  offered  by  the  foreman  at  one  of  the  can- 
neries that  if  a  serious  effort  were  made  the  district  might  be 
turned  into  a  community  of  workingmen's  cottages.  This  seems 
a  much  more  likely  way  of  cleaning  up  the  industrial  district 
at  any  rate,  than  any  process  of  law  would  be  likely  to  lead  to. 
If  this  could  be  done,  and  a  club  house  established  where  hot 
luncheons  would  be  served  and  a  rest-room  provided,  it  would 
indeed  be  replacing  figs  for  thistles.  Xo  more  promising  place 
for  establishing  a  basis  for  relationship  with  the  girls  who  work 
in  the  canneries  could  be  wished  for  than  would  be  afforded  by 
such  a  center. 


40  THE  IXDUSTEIAL  CONDITION  or 

THE  WORKERS 

HAWAIIAN. 

The  wage-earning  Hawaiian  has,  as  the  kindly  French  saying 
goes,  the  faults  of  his  qualities.  Naturally  gay  and  pleasure- 
loving  he  has  worked,  fished,  swam,  sang  and  feasted  his  way 
through  life  as  he  listed,  and  it  is  only  a  generation  since  he 
took  his  rest  with  equal  ease  on  the  shores  of  his  beloved  ocean 
or  beneath  the  boughs  of  the  hau  tree.  Luaus  and  hulas  were 
frequent  and  Hawaiian  hospitality  is  still  proverbial.  He  has 
never  learned  to  say  "no"  to  whomsoever  may  be  the  latest 
comer. 

Each  man  had  the  grant  of  his  own  kuleana,  with  a  taro-field 
on  the  mountainside  or  up  in  the  valley  where  the  showers  are 
frequent  and  a  place  to  fish  on  the  seashore.  The  newly  pre- 
pared taro-field  yielded  first  its  wild  crop  of  popolo ;  and  cocoa- 
nuts,  guavas,  yams,  mountain  apples,  water  lemons  and  bread- 
fruit were  his  for  the  gathering. 

Large  numbers  of  the  natives  have  now,  however,  almost 
wantonly  mortgaged,  sold  or  given  away  their  property.  The 
temptation  has  been  great  to  lease  the  acre  or  acre  and  a  half 
constituting  their  little  domain,  to  the  Japanese  or  Chinese 
gardeners  at  $40  or  $50  annually,  and  then  borrow  small  sums 
from  their  tenants,  until  some  morning  they  wake  and  find 
themselves  no  longer  in  possession. 

Hundreds  of  families,  too,  still  live  on  the  lands  of  their  old 
chiefs  or  of  the  kamaaina  families,  who  pay  the  taxes.  So 
long  as  they  live  they  may  remain  there,  raising  their  taro, 
flowers,  chickens  and  pigs.  The  fishing  of  commerce  has  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Japanese  but  a  man's  own  "catch"  is  suf- 
ficient for  himself  and  family. 

This  "family"  is  apt  to  be  made  up  of  all  his  unattached 
friends  and  relatives,  male  and  female,  less  well-off  than  him- 
self, who  sometimes  pay  for  at  any  rate  their  food  by  a  donation 
of  a  proportion  of  the  family  necessities  in  poi  or  canned  meats 


WOMEX    AND   GlKLS   IX   HONOLULU.  41 


or  fish.  Others,  however,  pay  nothing  at  all.  The  thrifty,  hard- 
working man  is,  therefore,  often  heavily  handicapped.  The 
more  thoughtful  of  the  older  Hawaiians  say  that  the  next  ten 
years  must  bring  a  change :  mortgages  contracted  with  no  thought 
of  repayment  (sometimes  the  money  has  been  borrowed  to  give 
a  luau)  will  fall  due;  competition  for  work  will  increase;  and 
while  the  head  of  the  house  may  at  the  present  time  be  earning 
a  comfortable  living  as  a  carpenter,  a  blacksmith,  a  painter,  or 
a  longshoreman,  etc.,  a  man  in  the  next  generation,  with  his  rent 
to  pay,  will  find  that  his  hospitality  and  even  his  ability  to  care 
for  his  immediate  family  may  be  curtailed.  This  of  course  in 
the  event  of  his  pursuing  his  present  improvident  way. 

The  Hawaiian  home — the  wage-earner's  home — varies  so  that 
it  is  difficult  to  form  any  judgment  of  the  economic  status  of 
the  occupant.  A  tenement  room  ,by  its  bareness,  is  apt  to 
give  an  impression  of  extreme  poverty  which  the  facts  in  the 
case  do  not  warrant.  Cottages  of  well-to-do  natives  frequently 
have  no  furnishings  but  a  lauhala  mat  on  the  floor  and  portraits 
of  departed  kings  and  queens  on  the  wall.  On  the  other  hand, 
one  happens  on  a  heavily  upholstered,  gilt-picture-framed- 
center-table-with-the-family-Bible  house  which  brings  one  back 
to  the  East  Side  of  New  York  City  with  scarcely  a  jar. 

The  native  menu  is  simple ;  one  full  meal  a  day  is  the  rule ; 
coffee  and  bread  or  simply  a  bowl  of  poi  constituting  the  other 
two.  The  omission  of  a  meal  or  two  now  and  then  troubles  the 
Hawaiian  not  at  all.  Poi,  fish,  fruit,  with  an  occasional  indul- 
gence in  yams,  taro-top-greens  and  pork  or  chicken,  forms  the 
usual  bill  of  fare. 

The  holoku  is  still  the  almost  universal  dress  of  the  native 
women.  The  missionary  who  "had  this  sartorial  inspiration  was 
a  true  artist,  for  no  other  garment  could  give  the  touch  of 
stateliness  and  dignity  to  the  almost  invariably  full  Hawaiian 
figure  that  in  American  attire  might  well  be  awkward  and  un- 
gainly. 

The  native  girl  of  pure  Hawaiian  blood  is  generally  large- 
boned,  but  slender — even  to  daintiness  when  there  is  a  mixture 


42  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


of  some  other  blood — with  flashing  eyes  and  a  profusion  of  long, 
black  hair,  almost  always  with  threads  of  grey  before  the 
twentieth  year  is  reached.  Her  teeth  are  even  and  white  and 
she  laughs  a  great  deal,  particularly  when  she  tells  you  that 
father  or  mother  has  joined  the  Mormons — not  father  and 
mother — a  procedure  wrhich  is  becoming  more  and  more  com- 
mon, and  which  for  some  reason  not  yet  made  apparent  , always 
affords  the  other  members  of  the  family  much  amusement. 

Employers  say  generally  that  Hawaiian  girls,  while  amiable 
and  amenable,  have  not  the  energy  and  push  necessary  to  make 
them  thoroughly  efficient.  There  is  a  general  impression  that 
they  are  irresponsible,  and  that  good  fishing  weather,  a  family 
luau  or  a  fancied  offense  are  each  one  by  itself  or  collectively 
sufficient  reason  for  discontinuing  business  relations.  An  ex- 
amination, however,  which  was  made  of  the  time  books  in  three 
distinct  occupations — a  cannery,  a  laundrv  and  a  wholesale 
house,  showed  an  almost  clean  record  for  married  women  and 
girls  alike,  so  far  as  absences  were  concerned.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  a  day  here  and  there — far  less  than  the  average  of  ab- 
sences elsewhere — the  four  months  covered  showed  steady  work. 
The  girls  are  prompt,  employers  say,  in  coming  to  work  in  the 
morning,  but  are  apt  to  dawdle  before  settling  down  to  their 
occupation  both  in  the  morning  and  after  the  lunch  period. 

In  a  number  of  instances,  it  was  found  that  work  had  been 
given  up  and  employment  changed  because  pay  envelopes  had 
been  short  several  hours'  time,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  every 
case  the  mistake  had  been  corrected  when  called  to  the  fore- 
man's attention. 

Xone  of  the  women  or  girls  spoken  with  had  any  complaints 
to  make  concerning  their  work.  Although  limping  painfully 
after  a  week  of  standing  from  seven  in  the  morning  until  seven 
or  eight  o'clock  at  night — often  their  first  experience  with  any 
sort  of  occupation — they  stoutly  maintained  that  they  were  not 
tired. 

Managers  of  both  canneries  and  laundries  say  that  they  have 
no  difficulty  in  securing  Hawaiian  girls.  An  advertisement  for 


WOMKX  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  43 


help  always  brings  more  applicants  than  there  are  positions, 
except  during  the  few  heaviest  weeks  of  the  canning  season. 

One  tender-hearted  proprietor  said  he  never .  advertised  be- 
cause he  couldn't  bear  to  disappoint  the  girls ;  but  always  secured 
new  workers  through  those  he  already  employed.  Boarding- 
house  keepers  tell  of  girls  who  waited  on  the  table  and  did 
chambermaid's  work  during  the  summer  to  pay  for  their  books 
at  formal  school. 

Among  the  most  ubiquitous  and  characteristic  of  the  native 
workers — the  lei-makers  and  vendors — one  finds  few  young- 
girls.  Perhaps  this  is  because  of  the  problem  peculiar  to  the 
Hawaiian  girl  in  Honolulu,  which  is  created  for  the  most  part 
by  her  inheritance.  The  echo  of  the  old  Hawaiian  traditions  of 
hospitality,  or  perhaps  a  phase  of  that  same  hospitality  which 
now  finds  expression  in  welcoming  the  stranger  to  her  native 
land,  tends  to  give  the  less  carefully  trained  native  girl  an  un- 
reserve that,  combined  with  a  genuinely  sweet  and  friendly  na- 
ture, too  often  causes  her  to  fall  an  easy  victim  to  men  who  re- 
gard her  as  legitimate  prey.  The  large  transient  element  and 
especially  the  numbers  of  soldiers  quartered  on  the  island,  make 
it  actually  unsafe  for  a  girl  to  go  about  her  business  unmolested 
unless  she  is  possessed  of  unusual  force  of  character. 

But  in  spite  of  this,  and  in  spite  too  of  the  fact  that  the 
problem  of  subsistence  has  not  yet  become  acute  for  the  Ha- 
waiians  in  Honolulu,  a  large  number  of  the  native  women  and 
girls,  with  the  awakening  of  new  desires — whether  for  more 
wearing  apparel  more  amusement  more  education  or  more  op- 
portunitv — are  becoming  serious  workers. 

There  is  no  question  but  that  a  large  factor  in  the  reason  for 
Hawaiian  girls  entering  the  wage-earning  field  will  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  numbers  of  them  are  the  illegitimate  daughters 
of  white  men  who  have  made  no  provision  for  either  them  or 
their  mothers.  Unmarried  mothers  are  almost,  without  excep- 
tion, taken  care  of  with  their  babies  by  their  own  families,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  make  them  think  seriously  of  the  future  of  the 
fatherless  little  one,  since  they  are  themselves  still  so  close  to 


44  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


the  promiscuity  in  sex  relations  of  the  early  Hawaiian  days. 
This  type  of  girl,  however,  is  by  no  means  to  be  considered  rep- 
resentative of  that  portion  of  the  race  which  has  had  oppor- 
tunity and  careful  training ;  and  the  mother  of  numerous  illegiti- 
mate children  is  likely  to  be  most  careful  of  her  daughter's  up- 
bringing and  conduct. 

JAPANESE. 

The  kimonoed  figures  of  the  Japanese  women  and  girls 
shambling  gaily  along  form  an  attractive  Dart  of  Honolulu's 
street  life.  Here  they  enjoy  a  social  libertv  undreamed  of  in 
their  native  land,  and  the  taste  of  it  may  be  said  to  have  gone 
to  their  heads.  Few  young  women  even  of  the  economically  in- 
dependent families  are  held  to  the  rigid  regime  which  Japanese 
custom  prescribes;  and  while  here  and  there  a  girl  comes 
through  her  school  course  with  the  same  ideals  of  freedom 
which  the  American  girl  has  come  to  accept  as  a  matter  of 
course,  on  the  majority  of  Japanese  girls  it  has  had  a  much 
more  violent  reaction. 

They  are  the  fighters  among  the  women  wage  earners  of  the 
city,  as  are  the  men  among  those  of  their  own  sex,  although  ably 
seconded  in  this  respect  by  the  Spanish.  The  latter,  however, 
are  present  in  such  small  numbers  that  they  do  not  play  an 
important  part  in  the  life  of  the  city.  The  Japanese  who  come 
to  Hawaii  are  almost  entirely  peasants  and  speak  a  patois.  As 
wage-earners  they  have  bettered  themselves  immeasurably. 
Those  with  whom  I  have  spoken  are  enthusiastic  about  •  the 
opportunity  here.  They  are  slowly  drawing  away  from  the 
plantations  and  are  concentrating  in  the  pineapple  fields  and 
small  truck  farms  near  the  city.  A  number  of  them  told  me 
that  the  discrepancy  between  the  cost  of  living  and  wages  in 
Japan  was  rapidly  bringing  about  an  acute  condition  of  affairs 
—that  women  and  girls  were  being  ground  up  like  chaff  in  the 
industrial  enterprises  of  their  native  land. 

One  finds  few  Japanese  families  in  the  tenements,  the  ma- 
jority of  small  shop-keepers  living  in  the  cottages  back  of  their 


AYOMEX   AXD   GlKLS   IX    HoXOLULU.  45 


stores.  The  tenements  have  their  quota  of  Japanese,  of  course, 
but  this  is  almost  entirely  made  up  of  single  men  or  of  couples 
newly  married. 

The  generation  which  has  been  educated  in  the  public  schools 
— as  well  as  in  their  own  Japanese  schools  for  the  children  at- 
tend both — is  highly  spoken  of  by  both  instructors  and  em- 
ployers. Their  privilege  to  vote  will  make  their  dual  citi- 
zenship a  matter  which  will  soon  require  final  adjustment. 

The  women  who  are  entering  now  come  as  picture  brides ; 
and  whereas  a  generation  ago  few  Japanese  children  were  born 
in  Hawaii,  abortionists  abounded  among  them,  the  past  five 
years  has  brought  a  change  and  families  of  at  least  moderate 
size  are  now  the  rule  and  are  found  in  every  part  of  the  com- 
munity, characteristically  assimilating  everything  educational 
and  commercial. 

In  the  Japanese,  as  in  the  Chinese  home,  one  fails  to  find 
the  supposed  rice  and  tea  diet  of  the  Oriental  family.  Unlike 
the  Chinese  wage-earners'  families  who  eat  no  vegetables  but 
rice  and  the  dried  mushrooms  from  the  Orient,  the  Japanese  are 
very  fond  of  cabbage,  turnips,  and  all  kinds  of  beans,  and 
eat  a  great  deal  of  all,  as  well  as  of  rice.  Fish,  fresh  or  dried., 
is  also  a  favorite  article  of  food. 

The  women  are  not  strong  physically,  but  perform  hard  and 
exhausting  work,  keeping  up  through  sheer  force  of  spirit — the 
national  philosophy :  Bushido. 

CHINESE. 

Only  since  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  dvnasty  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  republic — with  its  votes  for  women — have 
Chinese  girls  and  women  become  wage-earners  outside  of  the 
home.  Their  entrance  into  the  occupations  has  been  effected 
by  a  phalanx  of  women  and  girls  of  all  ages,  from  the  grand- 
mother of  fifty  or  more  down  to  seven  and  eight  year  old 
children. 

The  wives  and  daughters  of  the  merchant  class  are  still  at 
home,  many  of  them  being  "shut  in"  on  reaching  their  four- 


46  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


teenth  year  until  their  marriage  to  an  unknown  man — the  emi- 
nently practical  Chinese  way  of  dealing  with  the  "silly  age." 
Even  these  shut-in  girls,  however,  are  coming  to  sewing  classes 
at  the  Mission  schools  to  learn  English  and  sewing.  But  why 
teach  them  to  make  Irish  crochet  bags  and  embroidered  linen 
center  pieces  when  their  own  beautiful  Chinese  embroideries 
are  so  much  asked  for  in  the  Chinese  shops  by  tourists  ? 

The  wives  and  daughters  of  the  skilled  and  unskilled  working 
men  are  finding  their  way  into  every  sort  of  occupation,  and 
everywhere  they  are  making  enviable  records  for  themselves  for 
ability,  intelligence  and  reliability.  Within  the  next  five  years 
the  Japanese  woman  will  have  a  strong  competitor — one  who  by 
her  training  and  inheritance  will  perhaps  bring  about  a  higher 
standard  of  stability  as  well  as  habits  of  work. 

The  Chinese  employer  finds  it  more  economical  to  pay  his 
men  $20  a  month  and  to  feed  them  well  himself,  rather  than 
pay  him  a  somewhat  more  advanced  wage  and  take  the  risk  of 
his  being  sufficiently  well  fed  at  home  to  maintain  his  working 
efficiency.  Clerks  in  the  smaller  Chinese  shops,  carpenters  em- 
ployed by  Chinese  builders,  painters,  etc.,  are  therefore  paid 
in  this  manner,  and  their  families  must  bear  the  resulting  hard- 
ships. Four  or  five  children  mean  that  the  wife  must  also  be  a 
wage-earner,  and  the  children  too  as  soon  as  they  are  old 
enough — often  before.  But  although  a  rice  and  tea  diet  is 
popularly  supposed  to  prevail  among  the  Chinese  of  this  class, 
the  only  family  I  found  subsisting  on  such  a  diet  was  doing  so 
because  the  father  had  had  a  long  illness  and  was  paying*  off 
a  debt  he  had  contracted. 

A  trip  through  the  tenements  at  dinner  time  revealed  nothing 
more  simple  than  a  bowl  of  rice  crowned  by  a  plump  portion  of 
fish,  which  was  being  absorbed  by  a  group  of  children  in  one  of 
the  alleys.  Other  kitchens  showed  pots  of  stewed  mushrooms, 
soy,  green  salad,  or  fish ;  but  always  accompanied  by  a  bowl  of 
rice,  and  of  course,  a  pot  of  tea. 

The  tenement  rooms  of  the  Chinese  families  are  the  most  at- 


WOMEN  AND  GIELS  IN  HONOLULU.  47 


tractive  of  any  seen.  The  furnishings  are  simple,  and  there 
are  always  pots  of  flowers  and  ferns  at  the  door.  The  women 
are  friendly,  and  chat  freely  of  their  affairs  so  far  as  vocabulary 
wrill  permit.  J^ext  door,  however,  one  may  find  a  bare  room 
occupied  by  two  or  three  men  who  have  no  families;  and  two 
or  three  hours  later  they  will  be  there  gambling  and  opium- 
smoking,  breaking  up  the  cheerful  homelike  aspect  of  the  place. 

In  the  cottages,  which  were  often  occupied  by  two  families, 
the  women  were  watering  their  garden  patches,  complaining  the 
while  that  their  "men  too  much  long  work,  no  home."  These 
are  the  wives  of  the  clerks  in  the  larger  shops,  or  of  merchants. 
Women  from  the  adjoining  cottages  came  to  their  doors  and 
nodded  a  smiling  greeting.  All  of  them  are  much  interested  in 
the  suffrage  movement  which  under  the  leadership  of  prominent 
Hawaiian  women  is  agitating  Honolulu,  and  all  vehemently 
say  that  they  "laik  work." 

The  girls  and  women  for  the  most  part  still  wear  their  com- 
fortable, becoming  native  costume  of  blue  or  lavender  cotton; 
and  the  former  especially  are  exceedingly  attractive,  with  their 
bright  faces,  slender  bodies  and  long  thick  braids  of  black  hair. 

Prostitution  and  sex  immorality  is  almost  unknown  and  even 
the  polygamous  household  is  falling  into  disfavor  , especially 
with  the  second  wives. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  note  what  their  emancipation  will 
bring  to  the  coming  generation. 

PORTUGUESE. 

The  Portuguese  form  quite  a  distinct  element  in  the  com- 
munity. It  is  curious,  in  discussing  races  in  Hawaii,  to  hear 
" Portuguese  and  White"  written  and  spoken  of.  The  fact  thrit 
there  are  a  number  of  families  of  the  Cape  Verde  or  black 
Portguese  type  in  Hawaii  has  tended  to  differentiate  the  Por- 
tuguese as  a  whole. 

Their  presence  here  is  wholly  artificial,  brought  aboui  by  ti.e 
assisted  immigration  program  of  the  Sugar  Planters'  Associa- 


48  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


tion;  and  they  are  the  favorite  workers  on  the  best  plantations. 
Once  a  Portuguese  decides  to  remain  in  the  country  he  loses  no 
time  in  acquiring  literally  his  own  "vine  and  fig  tree." 

This  nationality  shows  the  strongest  contrasts  of  any  in 
Honolulu,  being  at  once  the  most  thrifty,  the  largest  alms- 
asking,  the  most  efficient  working  and  most  hopelessly  offend- 
ing child  laboring  and  school  evading  element  in  the  population. 
A  logical  explanation  is  offered  by  their  Consul  who  lays  the 
blame  for  the  mendicacy  on  the  Portuguese  nabobs  who  became 
millionaires  by  exploiting  the  natives  in  Brazil,  and  then  re- 
turned to  their  own  country  and  made  their  peace  with  God  by 
endowing  Portugal  with  every  sort  of  eleemosynary  institution 
possible  to  create. 

Their  thrift  is  the  result  of  the  habit  of  work  centuries  old, 
while  the  ingrained  habit  which  fathers  of  all  civilized  nations 
have  of  raising  large  families  and  retiring  from  work  to  live  on 
their  children's  earnings  at  the  earliest  feasible  time  is  one 
of  the  principal  factors  everywhere  in  making  child  labor  laws 
a  necessity.  Xot  until  there  is  sufficient  school  accommodations 
in  Honolulu  will  the  truant  officer  have  an  adequate  basis  for 
enforcing  the  compulsory  school  attendance  law. 

The  girls  and  women  are  well  liked  by  employers.  They  are 
reserved  and  have  a  hint  of  melancholy  in  their  temperament 
which  is  quite  foreign  to  other  workers  in  Honolulu. 

Portuguese  families  are  almost  a  rarity  in  the  tenement 
houses.  The  meanest  sort  of  cottage  is  preferred  by  them, 
wrhere  they  may  cultivate  their  own  vegetables  and  raise  their 
own  chickens. 

While  the  majority  of  the  immigrants  cam.3  from  the  same 
social  class,  many  nice  distinctions  have  sprung  up  with  the 
passing  of  years  and  the  acquiring  of  new  standards,  and  it 
is  therefore  impossible  to  characterize  the  Portuguese  population 
or  even  the  Portuguese  wage-earners  in  Honolulu  as  a  whole, 
with  anything  like  the  definiteness  distinguishing  the  workers 
of  other  races. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU. 


TEACHERS. 

lolulti's  teaching  force,  like  its  copulation,  includes  rep- 
resentatives of  the  four  corners  of  the  earth : 

American   100 

Hawaiian  or  Part  Hawaiian 32 

British    10 

Chinese  - 7 

Portuguese  6 

German    1 

Japanese  1 

Other  Foreigners 6 

163 

These  are  all  first-grade  certificate  teachers,  earning  salaries 
of  from  $600  to  $1,000  a  year.  Teachers  are  on  duty  five  days 
in  the  week,  from  9  a.  m.  until  2  p.  m.,  and  the  school  year  is 
nine  months,  with  a  total  of  three  months'  vacation.  The  salary 
schedule  is  substantially  the  same  as  in  other  communities  of 
this  size,  but  the  school  day  is  shorter  by  two  hours  than  it  is  on 
the  mainland.  The  community  is  paying  its  teachers  for  their 
eighth  year  of  service  $75  a  month — about  the  same  pay  a 
stenographer  receives  at  the  end  of  her  first  year's  work,  with 
an  even  greater  scarcity  in  supply,  and  a  far  more  urgent  need. 
Teachers  here,  as  indeed  they  do  everywhere,  complain  of  the 
small  pay,  and  those  spoken  with  expressed  a  preference  for 
longer  hours  and  more  pay. 

A  number  of  teachers  were  spoken  to  with  reference  to  the 
wide  discrepancy  between  the  social  and  community  aspect  of 
the  public  and  private  school  work  in  Honolulu.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  a  teacher's  institute  would  do  much  to  stimulate 
such  activity,  by  giving;  opportunity  for  the  interchange  of 
thought  among  the  teachers  in  Honolulu  and  those  from  other 
sections  of  the  Islands  who  have  a  considerable  amount  of 
social  activity  with  their  school  work. 

This  would  seem  to  be  an  admirable  plan,  and  the  steamship 


50  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


companies  might  be  induced  to  grant  special  rates  for  such  an 
occasion  so  that  attendance  would  not  be  an  unduly  heavy  finan- 
cial burden.  Reduced  transportation  is  usually  obtained  for 
teachers'  conferences. 

A  number  of  the  teachers  were  interested  in  the  question  of 
getting  into  closer  touch  with  the  children  in  their  homes,  and 
are  planning  to  meet  the  parents  at  an  early  date. 

There  are  only  six  teachers  on  the  waiting  list  at  present 
while  on  the  other  hand  groups  of  children  of  school  age  continue 
to  be  seen  on  every  block  during  school  hours.  Either  the  re- 
quired accommodations  are  not  yet  provided,  or  else  the  com- 
pulsory law  is  not  being  enforced. 

In  the  private  schools  there  are  forty  women  teachers  re- 
ceiving salaries  ranging  from  $450  to  $1,500  a  year,  and  living 
expenses.  In  several  instances  salaries  are  not  ^aid  for  the 
summer  vacation;  but  teachers  have  the  privilege  of  living  at 
the  school  without  expense. 

While  the  maximum  salary  is  greater  than  in  the  public 
schools,  the  private  school  work  includes  a  comprehensive  social 
program  noted  in  the  chapter  on  "Public  Amusements,"  which 
calls  for  much  service  outside  of  school  hours. 

The  Territorial  Teachers'  Association  could  do  much  if  it 
would  interest  itself  in  the  social  problems  of  the  city.  Sociolo- 
gists are  coming;  to  agree  that  in  last  analvsis  the  teacher  and 
the  policeman  are  the  forces  which  may  be  regarded  as  capable 
of  becoming  the  strongest  bulwarks  of  social  betterment.  Some 
place  the  policeman's  opportunity  first;  but  in  considering 
Honolulu's  problems  I  should  say  that  the  teacher  might  at  any 
rate  'be  entitled  to  equal  consideration. 

NURSES. 

There  is  a  wide  divergence  of  opinion  in  the  community  con- 
cerning the  question  of  nurses  and  where  the  supply  ought  to 
come  from.  At  present  there  are  about  thirty-five  private  nurses 
officially  registered  at  the  Sanitorium,  who  earn  $25  and  $30  a 


\Vo.MEX   AXD   GlKLS   IN   HONOLULU.  51 


week.  This  number,  I  am  told,  fairly  supplies  the  normal  de- 
mand in  Honolulu;  but  the  nurses  come  and  go,  and  not  half  a 
dozen  have  ties  which  make  them  an  integral  part  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Queen's  Hospital  employs  regularly  sixteen  nurses  at  $50  a 
month  and  living  expenses,  and  a  head  nurse  at  $75  a  month 
and  living  expenses.  This  means  an  expense  of  $875  a  month. 
A  hospital  of  this  size  located  in  a  community  of  the  type  of 
Honolulu  should  be  able  at  an  expense  of  $250  a  month  and  liv- 
ing expenses  for  a  superintendent  of  nurses  and  an  assistant,  to 
train  a  class  of  fifteen  girls  at  no  cost  to  the  community  other 
than  their  living  expenses  and  about  $150  a  month  of  an  allow- 
ance for  their  uniforms,  books,  etc. 

jNTative  girls  who  have  taken  hospital  training  on  the  main- 
land are  not  only  giving  the  best  of  satisfaction  but  are  earning 
salaries  far  higher  than  it  would  be  possible  for  them  to  secure 
in  any  other  way. 

The  corps  of  district  nurses,  who  receive  salaries  of  $90  a 
month  and  have  continuous  work,  is  constantly  receiving  addi- 
tions, and  the  demand  for  this  class  of  help  in  various  institu- 
tions is  constantly  increasing. 

As  at  present  organized  the  three  separate  hospitals,  Queen's, 
the  Children's  and  the  Maternity  Home  represent  an  outlay  for 
plant  and  running  expenses  which  might  easily  be  materially 
lessened.  A  consolidation  of  the  Maternity  Home  and  the 
Children's  Hospital  would  not  only  be  an  economy,  but  would 
give  both  institutions  an  opportunity  to  give  thorough  training 
to  a  corps  of  children's  nurses,  as  well  as  to  give  maternity 
and  children's  diseases  practice  to  nurses  taking  training  at 
Queen's  Hospital.  Such  a  course  is  customary  in  other  cities. 

If  the  consolidation  could  be  effected  and  a  resident  physician 
placed  in  charge,  it  would  not  only  place  both  institutions  on  a 
higher  basis,  but  would  leave  the  supervising  nurse  free  to  train 
the  proposed  nursing  classes.  This  would  mean  to  subscribers 
to  both  institutions  an  opportunity  for  truly  efficient  giving— 
which  in  turn  means  the  consideration  of  community  needs  first. 


52  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


last  and  always;  and  making  a  dollar  perform  100  per  cent  of 
its  work. 

Only  recently  while  visiting  a  family  in  Camp  2,  a  young 
baby  fell  from  the  second  story  porch  and  struck  its  head  in 
falling.  Owing  to  the  necessity  for  immediate  medical  attend- 
ance it  was  impossible  to  take  it  to  the  Children's  Hospital,  and 
the  child  had  to  be  rushed  down  to  Queen's  Hospital. 

I  know  of  nothing  that  is  better  worth  doing  in  the  com- 
munity than  making  these  changes  in  the  hosi)ital  regime,  and 
instituting  a  course  of  training  for  nurses.  If  the  matter  were 
given  newspaper  publicity  young  women  of  the  city  would 
undoubtedly  furnish  good  material  for  the  classes. 

STENOGRAPHERS. 

A  circular  letter  sent  to  ei^hty-eisiit  representative  employers 
of  stenographers  in  Honolulu,  supplemented  by  further  personal 
inquiry,  indicates  that  there  are  about  100  women  stenographers 
employed  in  the  city  at  present,  at  salaries  from  the  $40  or 
$60  a  month  usually  paid  to  beginners,  up  to  $100  and  $150 
paid  those  having  experience  from  a  year  to  eight,  ten  and  twelve 
years.  Over  50  per  cent  of  the  salaries  range  between  $100  and 
$135  a  month,  and  the  average  for  all  is  $90  a  month.  As  com- 
pared with  mainland  salaries  this  average  is  unusually  high, 
but  on  the  other  hand  the  average  of  ability  is  higher  and  re- 
ports indicate  that  the  stenographers  in  Honolulu  have  a  gen- 
erally higher  level  of  school  training  than  is  reached  in  com- 
munities where  numerous  commercial  schools,  accepting  pupils 
of  any  grade  of  intelligence  who  can  be  persuaded  to  take 
their  course,  have  flooded  the  market  with  a  supply  of  incom- 
petents willing  to  work  for  any  wage. 

There  are  only  three  complaints  of  incapability,  two  of  them 
being  on  account  of  lack  of  English,  and  one  for  lack  of  concen- 
tration. The  others  reported  not  capable  or  expert  have  not  yet 
had  a  year's  experience,  and  could  not  reasonably  be  expected  to 
have  reached  their  full  efficiency. 

Vacations  with  pay  range  from  one  week  to  a  month,  and  a 


WOMEX  AXD  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  53 


number  of  firms  allow  two  or  three  months  every  three  years, 
presumably  for  the  trip  to  the  mainland  to  tone  up,  which  is  a 
general  custom  in  the  islands. 

Hours  range  almost  uniformly  from  9  a.  m.  to  five  p.  m. 

There  is  no  public  stenographic  office  in  Honolulu.  Tran- 
sients and  others  who  have  occasional  work  are  dependent  on  se- 
curing an  unemployed  stenographer  haphazard,  or  having  work 
done  in  the  evening  or  on  Sunday.  This  works  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  both  employer  and  employe,  for  while  the  latter  may 
and  in  some  cases  does  double  her  regular  salary  by  overtime 
work,  yet  the  strain  on  her  physique,  and  especially  on  her  eyes 
inevitably  brings  bad  results. 

Successful  stenographers  elsewhere  make  the  largest  earnings 
in  this  field  of  work,  and  veritable  fortunes  have  been  piled  up 
by  some  of  the  large  offices  who  make  a  specialty  of  reporting 
conventions,  legislative  inquiries,  meetings,  etc. 

A  capable  stenographer  should  have  High  School  training  or 
its  equivalent;  unless  exceptionallv  equipped  with  English. 
Even  then  High  School  English  is  desirable  and  a  fund  of  gen- 
eral information  is  a  valuable  asset  to  those  qualifying  for  secre- 
tarial positions.  Of  the  thirty-four  stenographers  reported  as 
trained  in  Honolulu,  all  but  eight  have  such  training,  which 
undoubtedly  has  much  to  do  with  the  high  average  of  ability. 

Seventeen  of  the  entire  number  reported  are  Hawaiian  or 
Hawaiian  with  mixed  blood.  Mne  of  the  seventeen  Hawaiian 
stenographers  are  receiving  from  $900  to  $1,600  a  year,  and 
have  from  one  to  eleven  years'  experience/  In  general  their 
wages  average  as  high  or  a  little  higher  than  those  paid  other 
nationalities.  The  only  salaries  departing  from  a  normal  scale 
as  compared  with  salaries  paid  in  Honolulu  are  $10  a  week  paid 
a  Japanese  stenographer  in  a  law  office,  which  is  below  the 
average  paid  for  the  same  length  of  experience  in  this  class  of 
work;  and  the  salary  paid  a  stenographer  in  the  office  of  an 
engineering  firm,  which  is  low  both  for  the  field  of  work  and 
for  the  amount  of  experience  shown.  Both  stenographers  are 
pronounced  capable  by  their  employers. 


54  THE  IXDUSTKIAL  CONDITION  OF 


The  nationalities  shown  in  the  order  of  their  numerical  im- 
portance are 

American,  Hawaiian,  British  or  Canadian,  Portuguese,  Por- 
tuguese-German, Half-White,  (Hawaiian  and  white),  Nor- 
wegian-American, HaAvaiian-Chinese,  Hawaiian-French,  Jap- 
anese. 

It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  expect  private  teachers  to  confine 
their  instruction  to  pupils  whose  English  will  qualify  them  to 
become  efficient  stenographers,  but  if  English  is  found  deficient 
additional  instruction  should  at  any  rate  be  suggested.  If  a 
stenographer  is  hopelessly  incompetent  in  English  it  has  often 
been  found  possible  to  persuade  her  of  the  inconvenience  her 
incompetence  is  causing  her  employer,  and  of  the  ill-effect  on 
herself  of  wasting  effort  that  in  another  field  might  make  her 
services  valuable.  Employers  can  themselves  db  »musch  by 
speaking  frankly  with  a  girl  in  this  respect. 

Here,  too,  a  vocational  bureau  would  be  exceptionally  valu- 
able, and  would  tend  to  maintain  the  present  satisfactory  con- 
dition of  the  stenographic  field  from  the  standpoint  both  of 
ability  of  the  workers  and  the  pay  they  receive. 

In  view  of  the  training  required,  and  of  the  nature  of  the 
work  performed,  the  salaries  paid  in  Honolulu  are  not  high; 
but  they  are  high  when  compared  with  those  paid  in  mainland 
cities  where  the  field  is  overcrowded  with  girls  unequipped  with 
the  proper  qualifications  but  eager  to  make  for  themselves  a 
position  which  is  considred  practically  at  the  top  of  the  wage- 
earners'  scale  from  a  social  point  of  view. 


x  AXD  GIRLS  ix  HONOLULU,  55 


SHOPS   AND   STORES 

The  five  dry  goods  shops  employ  an  aggregate  of  about  seven- 
tv-five  saleswomen,  made  up  of  an  equal  number  of  Americans 
and  Portuguese,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Hawaiians  and  Germans. 

The  rooms  are  large,  no  artificial  light  is  used,  and  there  are 
no  basement  salesrooms. 

The  working  day  commences  at  7 :45  in  the  morning  and 
closes  at  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  There  is  an  hour's  allow- 
ance for  lunch. 

Three  of  the  shops  close  at  noon  on  Saturday  for  four  months 
of  the  year,  and  two  at  1  o'clock  during  June,  July  and  August. 
One  shop  has  reopened  from  7  to  9  o'clock  Saturday  evenings, 
but  the  proprietor  says  it  has  not  paid  and  that  he  intends  dis- 
continuing the  practice  the  first  of  the  year.  There  are  no 
fines  or  penalties  except  censure  or  dismissal  for  incompetence. 
There  are  rules,  however,  to  insure  courtesy  to  customers  and 
systematic  methods  of  salesmanship.  The  lowest  salary  paid  be- 
ginners is  $2.50.  They  are  advanced  with  reasonable  rapidity, 
one  shop  raising  wages  from  $2.50  to  $5.00  for  a  year's  service 
in  one  instance;  and  from  $3.50  to  $7.50  in  seven  months  in  an- 
other. One  manager  employs  none  but  experienced  help  and  has 
110  saleswoman  earning  less  than  $9.00.  Another  has  a  minimum 
wage  of  $5.00,  raising  it  to  $6.00  after  a  month's  trial.  He  says 
if  a  girl  does  not  earn  a  $6.00  rate  within  a  month  he  does  not 
wish  to  employ  her. 

A  list  of  sixty-nine  salaries  verified  as  correct  by  employers 
and  employes  is  as  follows: 

WEEKLY.  WEEKLY. 

1   at $  3.50  10  at 8.00 

1  at 4.00  2  at 9.00 

5  at 5.00  8  at 10.00 

2  at 6.00  1  at 11.00 

5  at 7.00  5  at 12.00 

1  at...  7.50  3  at...  .  12.50 


56  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 

List  of  verified  salaries — (Continued.) 

WEEKLY.  MONTHLY. 

1   at 14.00  2  at $  75.00 

9  at 15.00  1  at 85.00 

4  at 20.00  3  at 100.00 

1  at 25.00  3  at 125.00 

1  at 40.00 

Two  weeks'  vacation  with  pay  is  given  by  three  shops;  and 
a  week  with  pay  by  the  other  two. 

A  number  of  the  saleswomen  are  married.  One  who  left  her 
position  when  she  married  went  back  to  it  after  a  long  illness 
of  her  husband  left  them  in  straitened  circumstances,  and  she 
has  remained  at  work  ever  since.  She  has  no  children  and  says 
she  "feels  safer  for  her  old  age."  Most  of  the  girls  say  simply 
they  are  working  to  earn  a  living,  and  they  "like  this  way  of 
doing  it." 

The  best  paid  employes  are  from  "the  coast" — some  from 
New  York — those  earning  $15.00  or  less  a  week  being  Hono- 
lulans. 

All  the  managers  agree  that  native  girls  are  desirable  sales- 
women, but  that  they  lack  energy.  One  manager  said  he  would 
like  to  employ  more  native  girls  if  he  could  secure  efficient 
ones,  because  of  their  amiability. 

There  are  a  fair  number  of  openings  for  new  employes  in 
the  shops  each  year — from  fifteen  to  twenty  in  all — and  each 
manager  has  a  waiting  list. 

The  requirements  are:  a  fair  knowledge  of  arithmetic,  a 
good  appearance  and  good  English.  The  saleswomen  are  not 
required  to  wear  black  because  of  the  heat;  but  there  is  little 
extreme  dressing,  and  the  general  tone  of  the  shops  is  exceed- 
ingly good.  Perhaps  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  a  word 
in  regard  to  the  surprisingly  quick  time  in  which  new  styles 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  57 


reach  Honolulu  shops.  All  the  buying  is  done  in  ~Ne\v  York, 
and  in  general  an  excellent  stock  of  goods  is  carried. 

In  the  book,  florist,  jewelry,  curio  and  art  shops,  and  in  the 
various  stores,  there  are  about  100  young  women  employed, 
some  of  whom  combine  office  duties,  bookkeeping  or  stenography 
with  selling  in  the  shop.  The  wages  vary  from  $5.00  a  week- 
paid  the  small  Chinese  beginner  of  fifteen — who  has  here  clothed 
herself  in  American  garb — to  $85.00  a  month  for  years  of  ex- 
perience and  a  multiplicity  of  duties  The  average  wage  is  from 
$10.00  to  $12.00  a  week,  and  the  majority  of  the  saleswomen 
are  Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Irish.  The  restaurants  employ 
girls  as  cashiers,  but  there  are  no  waitresses. 

These  clerkships  afford  excellent  employment  for  untrained 
girls  with  good  manners,  a  good  apearance  and  average  intelli- 
gence, and  during  the  winter  season  an  extra  force  is  maintained 
in  practically  all  the  shops. 


58  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


SEAMSTRESSES  AND  NEEDLEWOMEN 

The  seamstress  investigation  developed  two  interesting  facts : 
i.  e.,  that  the  supply  of  workers  is  not  keeping  pace  with  the 
demand;  and  that  the  seamstresses  at  present  available  are  for 
the  most  part  self-trained. 

A  circular  sent  to  250  women  who  have  households  in  Hono- 
lulu brought  110  replies,  of  which  8  stated  that  no  seamstress 
was  employed  because  of  scarcity  or  inefficiency;  78  employed 
a  seamstress  regularly  in  periods  varying  from  one  week  to 
eleven  months,  but  for  the  most  part  from  three  to  six  weeks 
in  the  year.  Of  these  more  than  half  complained  either  of  in- 
competence or  slowness.  Seamstresses  who  had  served  with 
dressmakers  were  the  best  paid  and  most  satisfactory ;  but  they 
formed  a  small  group  of  only  eleven.  The  majority  were  found 
satisfactory  for  plain  sewing,  but  incapable  of  planning  work, 
or  incompetent  in  execution. 

The  remarks  in  reports  are  generally  as  follows: 

" Satisfactory  if  watched." 

"I  have  been  able  to  get  only  one  girl,  who  is  en- 
tirely untrained,  though  willing.'7 

"Competent  for  plain  sewing  and  mending." 
"Competent  for  plain  work." 

"For  very  plain  sewing  and  mending  her  work  is 
very  neat." 

"Qualified  for  plain  sewing;  not  to  cut  or  fit." 
"I  do  not  employ  any  at  present,  as  I  have  found 
all  I  have  tried  incapable  or  unreliable." 
Forty-eight  report  paying  from  $2.00  to  $3.00  a  day,  which 
always  includes  lunch,  and  often  breakfast  and  carfare.     The 
remainder  paying  $1.00,  $1.50  and  $1.75  a  day.     There  is  an 
opportunity  in  this  field  for  a  number — perhaps  fifty — compe- 
tent workers. 

The  day  is  as  a  rule  eight  and  a  half  hours  long,  beginning 
at  eight  in  the  morning  and  ending  at  five  in  the  afternoon. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  59 


Xo  one  nationality  can  be  said  to  give  more  satisfactory  service 
than  another,  although  the  Portuguese  are  by  far  the  most 
numerous.  The  reports  cover. 

57  Portuguese 

15  Hawaiians  or  part  Hawaiians 

2  Negresses 

2  Norwegians 

1  Russian 

1  American 

78 

Five  dressmakers  employ  about  30  girls,  whom  they  pay  from 
$3.00  to  $15.00  a  week,  the  lower  amount  stated  in  each  case 
as  being  paid  to  apprentices.  The  dressmakers  report  eight 
and  one-half  hours  a  day,  and  one  states  that  she  gives  a  half 
holiday  011  Saturday  and  extra  pay  for  overtime.  The  majority 
of  the  dressmakers7  assistants  are  Portuguese,  and  these  are 
considered  the  most  efficient  workers.  A  Japanese  girl  in  one 
shop  is  also  giving  satisfaction,  but  Hawaiians  and  half  Chi- 
nese are  not  reported  on  favorably. 

Japanese  maids  are  in  some  instances  being  trained  by  -their 
mistresses  as  seamstresses,  and  several  Japanese  women  are  now 
going  out  by  the  day,  but  none  were  reported  in  the  investiga- 
tion and  no  definite  information  could  be  secured  concerning 
them. 

Girls  working  in  other  establishments,  however,  report  ten 
and  eleven  hours7  work,  at  low  wages ;  and  a  shop  manager  who 
employs  girls  for  alterations  states  he  has  had  complaints  from 
dressmakers'  employes  that  they  did  not  receive  their  pay.  In 
other  instances  they  complained  of  not  being  paid  promptly. 

This  charge  is  a  common  one  in  the  dressmaking  business, 
the  proprietors  of  certain  New  York  establishments  saying  their 
bills  were  neglected  for  so  long  a  period — some  customers, 
usually  wTomen  of  wealth,  paying  their  bills  only  once  in  six 
months — that  their  own  capital  became  exhausted. 


60  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  or 


Each  of  the  department  stores  employs  from  one  to  three 
alteration  hands,  who  are  paid  from  $10  to  $15  a  week,  the  for- 
mer being  the  amount  paid  two  Hawaiian  girls  ,  who  were  con- 
sidered by  their  employers  to  be  slower  and  less  energetic  than 
the  Portuguese  woman  who  received  $15  a  week. 

In  the  millinery  shops  the  girls  in  the  work  rooms  would  be 
considerably  benefitted  by  a  preliminary  course  in  sewing.  They 
now  begin  their  apprenticeship  with  no  salary  at  all  in  two 
shops;  a  salary  of  from  $1.00  to  $2.00  is  paid  where  the  ap- 
prentice also  delivers  parcels  and  runs  errands. 

There  are  only  a  dozen  or  fifteen  workers  in  the  millinery 
shops,  and  it  does  not  seem  worth  while  in  this  community  to 
give  a  millinery  course  for  trade  purposes. 

There  is  a  large  demand  for  needlework,  and  the  shops  taking 
orders  for  it  and  also  having  articles  on  sale,  report  a  thriving 
business.  The  workers  earn  very  little,  however,  the  average 
among  a  dozen  women  talked  with  being  from  fifty  to  sixty 
cents  a  day,  while  some  earn  only  thirty  cents.  This  is  the 
usual  state  of  affairs  among  the  makers  of  hand  work,  as  indeed 
in  most  home  industries.  The  shopkeepers  say  they  are  handi- 
capped by  the  fact  that  the  same  women  who  work  for  them 
also  work  for  private  customers,  and  underbid  them.  One  shop 
maintains  that  it  earns  only  a  10%  commission  and  its  stamp- 
ing charges.  Another  shop  employs  Portuguese  women  on  plan- 
tations and  says  it  not  only  pays  their  fare  into  town  when 
they  come  for  work,  but  that  work  is  often  taken  out  to  the 
plantations  at  the  shop's  expense.  It  was  not  possible  to  visit 
any  of  these  plantation  workers  and  learn  what  they  earn. 

The  work  offered  for  sale  in  most  of  the  shops  indicates  that 
training  in  the  designing  and  selecting  of  patterns  would  be 
desirable ;  and  none  of  the  shops  show  the  pillow  laces,  so  well 
made  as  by  the  girls  of  the  Industrial  School. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  61 


LEI  MAKING  AND  LAUHALA  WEAVING 

The  makers  of  leis — the  beautiful  garlands  of  carnations, 
ilima,  ginger  or  hydrangea  interwoven  with  maile,  forming  the 
hat  and  neck-encircling  masses  of  fragrance  and  color  which 
speed  departing  friends,  or  bedeck  luau  and  poi  luncheon  guests 
— enliven  the  street  corners  of  the  shopping  district  at  all  times, 
sitting  in  the  shade  of  nearby  buildings  with  their  ti-leaf  cov- 
ered baskets  by  their  sides,  busily  making  the  more  durable 
leis  of  paper,  shell  or  seeds,  and  almost  invariably  discussing 
suffrage.  On  steamer  days  the  downtown  districts  and  piers 
are  alive  with  men  and  W7omen  vendors  of  this  most  character- 
istic native  ornament. 

Usually  the  women  of  the  family  make  the  leis,  the  men  cul- 
tivating the  flowers  for  their  manufacture  in  the  home  garden 
patches.  There  are  perhaps  two  dozen  of  these  women  in  Hono- 
lulu, each  of  whom  has  her  regular  stand  on  one  street  corner 
or  another.  But  the  leis  themselves  are  made  everywhere.  A 
trip  through  a  tenement  block  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night  dis- 
closed an  entire  family,  men,  women,  half -grown  girls  and  chil- 
dren,— eight  in  all, — asleep  on  the  floor,  while  an  older  woman, 
an  aunt,  sat  on  the  floor  in  the  farthest  corner  making  yellow 
paper  leis  for  a  suffrage  meeting,  by  the  light  of  an  oil  lamp. 
It  is  the  most  general  home  occupation  of  the  Hawaiian  woman, 
and  the  lei  itself  in  one  form  or  another,  usually  of  red  or  yel- 
low paper,  decorate  picture  frames  and  mantels  at  least  in 
every  other  home  one  enters.  It  was  found  even  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  visit  to  the  high-perched  cottage  of  a  Black  Forest 
German  iron-worker,  married  to  a  French  woman  from  the 
Pyranees,  who  owns  a  homestead  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
beautiful  valleys,  with  an  outlook  sweeping  from  the  crest  of 
one  hill  to  the  next,  the  sound  of  a  nearby  waterfall  always 
accompanying  the  soughing  of  the  trade  wind.  The  crescent 
moon,  accompanied  by  Venus,  topped  one  of  the  hills  as  our 
host  settled  himself  back  in  his  veranda  chair  and  grunted  com- 


62  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


fortably:  "I  think  I  don't  know  any  better  place  as  Honolulu 
for  a  working  man. — !N"o?" 

Lei  making  is  evidently  a  profitable  occupation.  The  vendors 
say  that  the  usual  receipts  are  $9.00  a  day  on  steamer  days, 
and  from  $2.00  to  $3.00  or  $4.00  on  other  days.  It  is  taught 
by  the  older  Hawaiian  women  to  the  next  generation,  and  I 
fancy  any  newcomer  to  the  ranks  would  have  much  the  same 
sort  of  fight  for  place  as  would  a  newsboy  on  a  rival's  route. 

The  garlands  sell  at  twenty-five  cents  each,  and  the  blossoms 
are  either  gathered  up  in  the  hills  or  are  raised  at  home.  Only 
one  lei-maker  talked  with  purchased  any  of  her  flowers.  She 
said  she  bought  about  half  her  supply  from  a  Japanese  gardener. 


Lauhala  weaving  is  a  passing  native  industry,  and  while 
mats,  fans  and  pillow-covers  are  found  in  the  curio  shops,  deal- 
ers and  some  of  the  older  Hawaiians  say  that  the  rush  to  turn 
land  into  pineapple  and  sugar  cultivation  has  eradicated  the 
lauhala  until  it  is  not  now  obtainable  in  any  quantity  sufficient 
for  commercial  uses,  from  every  island  but  Molokai. 

The  mats,  of  a  soft,  light  tan  color,  are  the  ideal  covering 
for  bungalow  floors.  They  are  woven  in  inch  or  two-inch 
squares,  and  have  a  dull,  satiny  finish  that  is  very  attractive. 
They  are  scrubbed  with  soap  and  water,  and  the  lauhala  fiber 
may  be  preserved  indefinitely  for  mending  purposes,  if  moist- 
ened with  water  occasionally. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  good  local  market  for  these  mats,  and 
their  beauty  and  durability  ought  to  make  them  popular  else- 
where if  a  sufficient  supply  of  raw  material  were  guaranteed. 
Most  of  those  in  use  here  are  made  to  order,  although  a  few 
of  the  shops  have  a  small  stock  for  sale. 

The  training  of  a  corps  of  workers  in  this  industry  and  an 
organized  plan  for  marketing  the  product  in  the  furniture  and 
dry-goods  shops  might  convince  property  owners  that  here  is  an 
additional  opportunity  for  industry. 

The  Federal  Bureau  of  Forestry  and  Agriculture  says  that 
lauhala  will  grow  on  almost  any  sort  of  rocky  land  that  would 


WOMEX   AXD    GlRLS   IX    HoXOLULU. 


be  available  for  110  other  agricultural  purpose;  and  that  it  re- 
quires very  little  moisture,  growing  down  almost  to  the  sea  in 
some  places. 

The  weaving  process  is  not  laborious  and  can  be  carried  on 
in  the  open  air.  Patience  and  care  are  required,  however,  in 
selecting  and  moistening  the  dried  leaves  for  weaving. 

If  this  industry  could  be  placed  on  a  sound  basis  it  would 
not  only  give  continuous  employment  to  a  corps  of  workers,  but 
would  serve  the  interesting  purpose  of  keeping  alive  a  charac- 
teristic folk-occupation. 

Also,  as  Miss  Addams  has  so  often  pointed  out,  in  speaking 
of  the  national  museum  of  occupations  in  Hull  House,  the 
stimulation  of  the  workers'  respect  for  their  own  national  oc- 
cupations is  always  healthy. 


64  THE  INDUSTEIAL  CONDITION  OF 


COFFEE  SORTING  AND  PACKING 

Coffee  sorting  and  packing  employs  between  60  and  70 
women  workers,  the  former  occupation  lasting  from  October 
to  June,  and  the  latter  all  the  year  round. 

A  number  of  the  cannery  employes  find  work  here  after  the 
close  of  the  pineapple  canning  season. 

The  work  is  sorting  coffee  beans  of  two  grades,  the  better 
grade  paying  forty  cents,  the  poorer  grade  fifty  cents  a  hun- 
dred pounds. 

Some  of  the  experienced  workers  earn  as  hie'h  as  $7.00  a 
week,  but  the  majority  of  credits  on  the  time  book  are  between 
$2.50  and  $4.50  a  week. 

The  hours  are  from  7  :30  a.m.  to  5  p.m.,  and  the  work-room 
is  in  a  light,  airy,  first-story  room.  Both  the  sorting  and  pack- 
ing operations  are  carried  on  seated,  the  workers  being  arranged 
in  groups  of  two  or  three. 

Here,  as  in  the  canneries,  the  majority  of  workers  are  Ha- 
waiian, with  Japanese  and  Portuguese  second  and  third  in 
number.  There  are  also  Porto  Ricans  and  Filipinos,  but  the 
highest  wages  are  earned  by  the  Japanese. 

The  Hawaiian  foreman  is  a  great  favorite,  and  he  knows 
the  intimate  personal  history  of  all  the  workers — the  Japanese 
girl  who  wishes  to  learn  English ;  the  Hawaiian  woman  who 
was  closely  related  to  the  victim  of  the  last  white  slave  trial; 
the  stout,  but  asthmatic  and  idle  husband  of  one  of  the  women, 
who  "always  shows  up  on  pay  day.'7 

Coffee  packing  pays  $3.00  to  $5.00  a  week,  according  to 
length  of  service,  the  latter  amount  being  paid  after  three 
years.  I  asked  the  foreman  if  anyone  was  earning  $5.00  now, 
and  he  said :  "No,  not  since  my  daughter  left  to  be  married." 

Few  of  the  employes  understand  or  speak  any  English,  and 
it  was  therefore  not  possible  to  converse  with  them. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  65 


LAUNDRIES 

The  150  workers  normally  employed  in  Honolulu's  three 
steam  laundries  are  exempt  from  all  the  minor  and  some  of  the 
major  ills  which  commonly  beset  this  class  of  wage-earners. 

The  greatest  gain  is  perhaps  in  the  all-year-round  opening 
of  doors  and  windows,  entirely  obviating  the  collection  of  steam, 
gas  fumes  and  other  impurities.  Then,  too,  the  fact  that  two 
laundries  conduct  their  work  entirely  on  one  floor  removes  the 
discomfort  which  ascending  steam  and  heat  brings  when  the 
wash-room  is  in  a  basement  or  lower  floor.  The  only  two-story 
laundry  in  the  city  has  its  wash-room  on  the  second  floor. 

A  test  of  all  the  power-driven  machinery  demonstrates  that 
no  more  effort  than  stepping  down  is  required  to  operate  any 
one  of  them: — a  great  and  welcome  contrast  with  the  exhaust- 
ing work  described  in  Miss  Butler's  "Women  and  the  Trades" 
as  performed  by  the  Pittsburgh  operators  of  laundry  machinery. 
To  cite  only  one  instance : 

(1)    Pages  182-183. 

"Cuff,  neckband  and  yoke  presses,  and  the  wing 
point  tipper  for  collars,  operate  in  the  same  way  as 
the  body  ironers.  The  cuff  is  placed  over  the  saddle- 
shaped  padded  head;  pressure  of  a  treadle  raises  the 
head  against  a  steam  chest  and  the  pressure  of  an- 
other treadle  causes  the  head  to  drop  back  as  the  cuff 
is  finished.  Only  by  violent  exertion  can  hot  metal 
and  padded  head  be  forced  together.  By  sheer  physi- 
cal effort,  therefore,  the  operator  presses  each  cuff 
four  times,  twice  on  a  side,  and  the  whole  body  of  the 
girl  is  shaken  by  the  force  she  is  obliged  to  use.  In 
one  laundry  the  manager  said:  'Xo  American  girl 
can  stand  this.  We  have  to  use  Hungarians  or  other 
foreigners.  It  seems  to  be  unhealthful,  but  I  don't 
know —  '  Yet  American  girls  do  stand  it.  I  have 
seen  them  ironing  at  the  rate  of  three  cuffs  a  min- 


66  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


ute.     The  motion  required  for  operating  the  tipper 
is  as  violent  as  that  of  the  old-style  cuff  press,  the 
pressure  of  either  treadle  requiring  the  utmost  physi- 
cal effort,  but  in  each  case  where  I  saw  the  machine 
in  use  the  operator  was  a  young  girl  not  over  fifteen 
years  of  age,  and  she  was  white  with  the  strain." 
Another  favorable  feature  characterizing  the  work  in  laun- 
dries here  is  the  shifting  of  occupation  made  possible  in  small 
establishments.    While  one  machine,  a  body-ironer  for  example, 
— on  which  600  shirts  may  be  turned  out  in  one  day,  each  shirt 
requiring  ten  motions,  making  a  total  of  6,000  motions  of  the 
arms  and  of  the  foot  in  operating  the  treadle, — is  operated  by 
the  right  foot,  the  collar-presser  is  a  left-footed  machine,  and 
the  girls  are  shifted  from  one  machine  to  another,  so  that  the 
strain  on  one  part  of  the  body  exclusively  is  regulated.     I  asked 
one  manager  why  this  was  not  done  in  all  laundries,  and  he 
said  the  difficulty  lay  in  the  fact  that  union  wage  scales  were 
made  for  certain  kinds  of  work;  whereas  he  paid  his  employes 
by  the  month,  raising  wages  according  to  ability  and  length  of 
service.    . 

The  fact  that  all  the  steam  laundries  are  comparatively  new 
has  perhaps  been  the  reason  why  the  newer  machine  models, 
obviating  the  strains  mentioned  by  Miss  Butler,  have  been  in- 
stalled. 

There  is,  however,  the  same  tendency  to  exact  long  hours  of 
work  in  times  of  stress  which  is  found  everywhere  in  this  busi- 
ness, one  laundry  reporting  87  hours  of  overwork  in  one  month 
during  the  tourist  season,  making  a  thirteen-hour  day,  and  as 
all  work  must  be  performed  in  a  standing  posture,  this  strain 
is  unduly  severe.  The  customary  overtime  is  two  evenings  a 
week  until  nine  or  nine-thirty  o'clock. 

Work  commences  in  all  the  laundries  at  seven  or  seven-thirty 
in  the  morning  and  continues  until  five  or  five-thirty  in  the 
evening.  Saturday  is  usually  a  half  holiday. 

Processes  are  uniform  in  all  the  laundries.  The  bundle  of 
laundry  first  goes  to  the  marker,  who  gives  it  its  distinguish- 


WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  IN  HONOLULU.  67 


ing  family  or  personal  mark.  It  is  then  separated  into  white, 
colored  and  woolen  articles,  after  which  it  goes  to  the  washer, 
and  is  boiled  in  the  large  vats  occupying  one  corner  of  the  room. 
The  washing  is  done  by  men — mostly  Chinese — with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  woolens  and  fine  pieces,  which  are  washed  in  an- 
other part  of  the  room  by  the  starch  girls.  The  floors  were 
wet  about  the  washing  machines,  but  there  was  no  standing 
water,  the  drainage  being  good  in  all  the  laundries. 

After  the  clothes  are  washed  they  are  put  into  the  drying 
machines,  huge  metal  vats  with  perforated  inner  baskets  re- 
volving rapidly  and  throwing  out  the  water  by  centrifugal  force. 
Accidents  have  been  reported  in  other  places  caused  by  the  un- 
even distribution  of  clothing  in  these  inner  baskets,  which 
breaks  them  under  the  great  force  with  which  they  revolve. 
They  in  turn  cause  the  outer  metal  covering:  to  break  loose  and 
whirl  into  the  workroom.  There  is  no  record  of  such  an  acci- 
dent, however,  in  Honolulu. 

The  clothes  are  next  shaken  out  ready  for  the  mangling  or 
starching,  and  on  the  shaking  out  process  and  mangling  the 
beginners  are  started,  earning  $3.50  to  $5.00  a  week,  in  one 
laundry;  $3.00  to  $1.50,  in  another;  and  $17.00  a  month  in 
a  third.  In  all  the  laundries  an  upright  board  about  six  inches 
high  is  used  to  protect  the  hands  of  the  operators  from  being 
crushed  between  the  rollers  of  the  mangling  machines.  These 
machines  are  near  the  corner  where  the  washing  is  done,  and 
are  constructed  of  framework  supporting  steam-heated  metal 
rolls,  placed  horizontally  and  covered  with  wool  and  canvas. 
Between  these  rolls  sheets,  towels,  napkins  and  other  flat  work 
receive  their  final  drying  and  pressing.  Two  operators  work 
at  either  side  of  the  roll  on  sheets,  table-cloths  and  other  large 
pieces ;  but  the  smaller  ones  are  fed  into  the  roller  by  one 
worker. 

Here,  as  in  all  other  processes,  the  motor  is  gauged  to. a  low 
rate  of  speed,  for  managers  all  agree  that  the  girls  cannot  work 
as  hard  here  as  they  do  on  the  mainland. 


68  THE  INDUSTEIAL  CONDITION  or 


The  starched  pieces  go  from  the  drying  machines  to  the 
starchers.  The  starching  is  done  by  hand  in  two  laundries  and 
by  machine  in  one.  The  starch-girls  have  a  corner  to  them- 
selves as  a  rule,  with  a  sink  for  washing  fine  pieces  and  flan- 
nels. The  starching  process,  even  when  done  by  machinery, 
is  very  simple,  and  the  girls  earn  even  less  than  the  mangle 
operators.  They  are  paid  from  $3.00  to  $4.50  a  week,  accord- 
ing to  length  of  service,  in  one  laundry  the  head  starcher  re- 
ceiving $20.00  a  month,  after  three  years  of  service. 

The  drying-room,  where  the  starched  pieces  are  sent  before 
being  ironed,  is  partitioned  oft0  from  the  main  workroom,  and 
in  one  case  the  process  is  entirely  automatic,  the  articles  being- 
suspended  from  the  hooks  of  a  traveling1  chain  and  carried 
through  the  closed  drying-room,  which  is  heated  to  a  high  de- 
gree, from  which  they  are  automatically  dropped  into  a  basket 
for  ironing.  In  the  other  two  laundries  the  pieces  are  sus- 
pended from  a  chain,  drawn  by  the  starch-girl  into  the  drying- 
room,  in  which  they  are  left  for  a  certain  period  of  time  and 
are  then  taken  out  in  the  same  manner. 

The  ironing  is  done  by  the  most  experienced  workers,  this 
being  the  last  stage  of  promotion,  and  the  wages  paid  are  from 
$1.00  a  day  to  $35.00  a  month  and  overtime.  It  is  possible 
with  overtime  to  earn  $10.00  a  week,  about  a  dozen  women  in 
all  reaching  this  figure,  but  the  most  common  rate  of  pay  for 
the  normal  day  is  $1.00,  with  an  unpaid-for  half -day  on  Sat- 
urday, averaging  $5.50  a  week  for  a  ten-hour  day.  One  laun- 
dry pays  $35.00  a  month  to  its  most  experienced  workers  for 
a  ten-hour  day.  All  overtime  is  paid  for  at  regular  day  rates. 
The  rate  is  rather  under  that  paid  on  the  mainland,  where 
ironers  earn  $15.00  and  $18.00  a  week  when  working  long 
hours. 

Shirts,  collars  and  cuffs  are  ironed  on  machines  driven  by 
gas,  steam  or  electricity,  the  other  pieces  beinp*  ironed  by  hand, 
with  electric  or  gas-heated  irons.  The  ironing  machines  and 
boards  are  all  placed  at  the  windows  on  the  mauka  side  of  the 


WOMEX  AXD  GIRLS  ix 


room,  so  that  the  breeze  blowing  almost  continuously  from  the 
hills  may  be  taken  advantage  of. 

In  one  laundry  all  the  latest  appliances  in  electric  and  steam- 
driven  machines  especially  are  in  use;  but  the  other  two  use 
gas  and  some  electricity  for  their  machines  and  irons.  As  the 
workrooms  of  these  two  laundries  are  or>en  to  the  air  on  all 
four  sides,  however,  the  fumes  do  not  accumulate,  though  they 
are  in  evidence  to  a  slight  degree  near  the  machines  when  they 
are  in  operation. 

Finally  such  pieces  as  require  mending  or  darnino-  go  to  a 
woman — usually  an  elderly  person — who  is  regularly  employed 
for  this  purpose,  and  who  receives  $4.50  a  week  in  all  the 
laundries. 

The  workers  are  of  all  ages,  conditions  and  races. 
The  visits  were  made  at  the  time  of  year  when  the  laun- 
dries were  least  busy,  and  the  race  proportion  among  the  women 
workers  was  as  follows: — 

Portuguese   90 

Hawaiians  25 

Filipinos  10 

Chinese 2 

Porto  Rican 1 

Japanese  1 


129 

The  one  Japanese  had  been  adopted  when  a  baby  by  a  white 
family,  and  had  been  "raised  white."  No  Japanese  are  em- 
ployed in  any  of  the  laundries,  because  of  the  fear  of  cut  prices 
if  processes  are  learned ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  in- 
numerable Chinese  and  Japanese  laundries  throughout  the  city, 
the  Bureau  of  Licenses  having  a  record  of  232  which  are  being 
operated  without  the  license  showing  inspection  by  the  Board 
of  Health,  required  from  the  other  laundries.  Most  of  these 
are  said  to  be  conducted  by  Japanese  women,  who  collect  laun- 
dry from  individual  customers,  hiring  other  Japanese  women 
to  do  the  work.  But  although  there  is  a  record  of  their  exist- 


TO  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


ence,  numerous  trips  through  the  tenement  blocks  failed  to 
disclose  any  of  them  in  operation. 

Laundry  managers  say  they  find  efficient  workers  among  all 
nationalities,  and  that  the  grade  of  help  is  slowly  improving. 
One  manager  says  there  is  a  great  deal  of  jealousy  between  the 
different  race's  on  the  score  of  advancement. 

It  was  difficult  to  find  any  prevailing  characteristics  among 
the  workers.  Several  worked  because  their  husbands  earned 
insufficient  salaries  to  provide  a  "good  home."  Three  worked 
because  they  said  it  improved  their  health !  The  majority  of 
Portuguese,  however,  either  said  they  were  helping  to  buv 
homes  ,or  were  members  of  large  families,  in  eight  instances 
having  no  support  from  their  father,  either  through  illness  or 
death.  The  Filipinos  and  Porto  Ricans  spoke  no  English  and 
it  Nvas  impossible  to  talk  with  them.  One  Portuguese  lady 
thought  I  was  collecting  for  a  church  and  immediately  took 
out  her  pocket-book,  searching  through  many  petticoats  to 
find  it, 

Here,  as  in  the  canneries,  there  was  general  good  spirit  among 
the  employes,  even  the  girls  shaking  out  the  sheets  and  table- 
cloths for  the  mangles — the  most  tiring  work  of  all — doing  it 
with  much  chattering  and  gossip.  It  must  be  because  so  much 
of  the  work  is  done  in  the  fresh  air  that  one  sees  little  of  the 
strained,  tired  expression  of  the  mainland  industrial  worker. 
Several  of  the  women  stated  that  they  had  varicose  ulcers  on 
their  legs,  but  none  of  these  had  been  working  in  the  laundry 
for  a  sufficiently  long  period  to  make  this  work  the  cause  of 
the  trouble. 

The  laundries  are  all  prosperous  and  growing,  their  man- 
agers say,  most  of  the  work  coming  from  the  steamers  and  trans- 
ports constantly  touching  at  Honolulu. 

No  previous  training  is  required  or  wished,  each  laundry 
having  its  own  way  of  doing  its  work  and  preferring  to  teach 
its  own  employes.  There  should  be  employment  for  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty  girls  in  this  work  within  the  next  year; 
but  a  ten-hour  day  rigid  law  and  better  wages  are  needed  here. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU. 


THE  CANNERIES 

The  Fourth  Report  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor  on  Hawaii  (Bulletin  JSTo.  94,  May,  1911)  sums  up  the 
possibilities  of  industry  in  the  islands  as  a  whole  as  follows — 
(1)  page  674: 

"The  Territory  possesses  no  mineral  or  fuel  de- 
posits, and  this,  together  with  the  remoteness  from 
markets,  prevents  diversified  industries.  A  small 
amount  of  subsistence  farming,  followed  principally 
by  natives  and  orientals,  and  the  production  of  staple 
export  crops,  like  sugar,  have  hitherto  been  the  prin- 
cipal occupations  of  the  people." 

To  this  should  also  be  added  the  product  of  the  pineapple 
canneries,  which,  strangely  enough,  is  omitted  entirely  from 
the  report,  although  increasing  in  value  and  importance  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  This  omission  may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  by 
the  fact  that  the  bulletin  issued  in  May  was  compiled  before 
the  canning  season  commenced,  which  is  not  usually  until  June 
1st,  lasting  this  year  until  October  5th.  In  the  past  ten  years 
the  value  of  the  pineapple  exports  increased  from  $3,948  to 
$1,229,647,  almost  400%,*  and  the  growth  of  this  year's  busi- 
ness over  last  may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  while  one  estab- 
lishment employed  a  maximum  of  215  women  and  girls  last 
year,  this  year  they  report  450  employed  during  their  heaviest 
time. 

Then,  too,  while  last  year  60%  of  the  entire  "nack"  was 
reported  as  being  taken  care  of  in  three  weeks,  this  year  there 
were  only  six  or  seven  half-day  shut  downs  during  the  four 
months  of  the  season. 


^Bulletin  of  the  Thirteenth   Census  of  the  United  States, 
1910;  page  11. 


72  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


The  manufacturers'  problem  in  Honolulu  is  uncomplicated 
by  the  variety  of  processes  and  products  of  the  mainland  can- 
nery. The  only  product  with  which  they  have  to  deal  is  the 
pineapple,  as  against  spinach,  berries  of  all  varieties,  cherries, 
peas,  wax  beans,  tomatoes,  pears,  peaches,  apples,  beets  and 
finally  oysters  in  Maryland;  asparagus,  strawberries,  peas, 
gooseberries,  cherries,  currants,  beans,  blackberries,  apricots, 
greengages,  plums,peaches,  pears,  tomatoes,  grapes  and  quinces 
in  California ;  while  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  cans  berries,  fruits,  beans, 
corn,  peas  and  tomatoes,  as  well  as  pickles  and  molasses. 

After  the  overripe  fruit  is  eliminated  there  is  little  or  no 
waste  in  canning  pineapple.  As  the  boxes  are  taken  from  the 
freight  cars  into  the  factory,  the  "pines, "as  they  are  usually 
termed,  are  stripped  of  their  green  ends  by  the  trimmers,  and 
these  ends  are  planted  for  the  rattoon  crop.  The  pineapple 
yields  two  crops,  requiring,  like  sugar,  eighteen  months  to  ma- 
ture the  first  crop,  the  second,  or  rattoon,  crop  being  ready  for 
harvest  in  twelve  months.  Sometimes  the  trimming  is  done 
before  the  fruit  is  shipped  from  the  plantations,  in  which  case 
it  is  ready  when  received  at  the  cannery  for  the  coring  and 
peeling  machine.  This  machine  is  operated  by  men,  and  calls 
for  considerable  sureness  of  eye  to  secure  the  largest  number 
of  perfect  pineapples  for  slicing.  If  the  fruit  is  at  all  soft, 
however,  it  is  split  into  two  and  sometimes  three  parts  in  this 
process,  and  is  then  used  for  grated  pineapple,  which  is  also 
made  of  the  slices  too  imperfect  for  canning,  the  odds  and  ends 
from  the  slicing  machine,  and  the  fruit  which  still  adheres  to 
the  peeling.  These  are  accumulated  in  tubs,  taken  to  the  screen- 
ing machine,  which  reduces  it  to  the  consistency  of  the 
grated  pineapple,  used  principally  at  soda  fountains.  The 
grated  pulp  is  received  in  a  wooden  vat  running  the  length  of 
the  screen,  and  is  conducted  automatically  from  this  vat  into 
tubs.  From  these  tubs  the  pulp  is  poured  in  bulk  into  cooking 
vats,  where  it  is  mixed  with  the  sweetening  syrup.  From  the 
cooking  vats  it  is  automatically  fed  into  large  cans,  gallon  or 
half-gallon,  these  cans  in  turn  being  automatically  sealed  and 


'OMEN   AXD   UlRLS   IN   HONOLULU. 


into  a  cooling  bath,  after  which  they  are  sent  to  the  label- 
ing room. 

After  the  pineapples  are  peeled  and  cored  they  go  through  a 
second  trimming  process  with  a  pruning  knife,  by  means  of 
which  all  the  "eyes'7  and  small  pieces  of  peeling  are  removed. 

They  are  then  placed  in  the  slicing  machine,  from  which  the 
slices  are  automatically  deposited  onto  a  traveling  web  band 
about  ten  inches  wide,  moving  at  a  medium  rate  of  speed  along 
the  centre  of  the  packing  tables,  which  are  about  thirty  feet 
long.  On  each  side  of  the  moving  web  are  wooden  shelves, 
the  one  immediately  in  front  of  the  packer  being  used  as  a 
sorting  tray.  On  the  shelf  back  of  the  web  are  arranged  the 
trays  of  empty  cans,  each  tray  stamped  with  the  grade  of  fruit 
it  is  to  hold.  Above  this  shelf  is  a  second  one,  on  which  are 
empty  trays  to  receive  the  cans  of  fruit  as  they  are  packed. 
As  soon  as  a  tray  is  filled  with  a  dozen  cans,  it  is  taken  away 
by  a  man  to  be  filled  with  syrup  and  cooked. 

As  the  sliced  pineapple  is  deposited  onto  the  traveling  web, 
the  girl  next  to  the  slicing  machine,  usually  an  experienced 
and  efficient  worker,  selects  the  most  perfect  slices — those  hav- 
ing no  flaws  or  imperfect  edges,  and  whitest  in  color.  The 
next  worker  selects  the  next  grade,  and  so  on  down  the  table, 
the  residue,  unsuitable  for  canning,  going  into  the  pulp  tub. 
When  she  has  a  sufficient  number  of  slices  of  the  proper  grade, 
she  makes  a  mound  of  them,  turns  an  empty  can  down  over  the 
mound,  slips  it  off  the  sorting  tray  and  places  it  right  side  up 
on  the  tray  for  filled  cans. 

After  the  cans  have  been  filled  with  the  sliced  pineapple  and 
syrup,  they  are  taken  to  another  machine  which  automatically 
places  the  cover  on  the  can  and  seals  it. 

The  sealed  cans  are  then  taken  on  a  tray  to  the  cooking  vat, 
where  they  are  lowered  in  boiling  water  onto  a  slowly  moving 
platform,  which  carries  them,  submerged,  through  the  water 
for  just  a  sufficient  length  of  time,  gauged  automatically,  to 
cook  the  fruit.  The  tray  of  cans  is  then  raised,  again  auto- 


THE  INDUSTEIAL  CONDITION  OF 


matically,  onto  a  continuation  of  the  moving1  platform,  which 
immerses  them  in  a  cold  bath,  in  which  thev  are  kept  for  a 
sufficient  length  of  time  to  cool  them.  The  cans  are  then  sent 
to  the  labeling  room,  where  they  receive  their  various  brands, 
according  to  grade  and  to  the  customers  for  whom  they  are 
intended. 

All  machinery  is  geared  at  a  low  rate  of  speed;  the  only 
process  which  holds  any  menace  is  the  peeling  and  coring  ma- 
chine, which  must  have  the  careful  attention  of  the  operator  to 
keep  his  fingers  from  the  knives. 

The  cores,  which  formerly  were  thrown  out  with  the  waste, 
are  now  also  sliced  into  inch  lengths,  cooked,  canned  and  sold 
to  confectioners,  who  coat  them  with  chocolate  and  sell  them  as 
pineapple  candies.  As  these  cores  have  about  as  much  taste 
as  juicy  wood,  it  is  at  least  a  question  how  much  of  pineapple 
the  ultimate  consumer  is  favored  with. 

The  women  workers  in  the  canneries  are  divided  into  four 
classes:  trimmers,  packers,  labelers  and  miscellaneous,  the  lat- 
ter doing  duty  at  the  slicing  machine,  the  pulp  troughs  and  in 
packing  the  cores. 

The  new  workers  are  usually  started  at  trimming  and  at 
packing  cores,  the  youngest  ones  performing  the  latter  work 
or  tending  the  slicing  machines.  All  of  this  work  is  done  in 
a  sitting  position  in  one  of  the  canneries ;  but  the  other  two 
establishments  have  no  seats  for  any  of  their  employes. 

At  the  packing  table,  however,  the  workers  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder,  sometimes  in  the  height  of  the  season  as  closely 
packed  as  they  can  work;  ordinarily,  however,  there  is  ample 
room  for  each  individual.  At  one  cannery  there  are  seats  back 
of  the  packers,  but  they  are  so  arranged  that  it  is  impossible 
to  do  more  than  lean  back  against  them  for  a  moment  or  two, 
and  even  this  throws  an  additional  strain  on  the  workers'  feet, 
which  it  is  necessary  to  brace  against  the  floor  or  the  frame- 
work of  the  fruit  table. 

Work  commences  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  on 
days  when  the  cannery  runs  full  time  the  official  closing  time 


WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  ix  HONOLULU.  75 


is  half -past  five;  but  in  only  one  cannery  did  the  employes 
state  that  there  was  an  earlier  closing  time  than  six  o'clock. 
Half  an  hour  is  allowed  for  lunch,  this  being  divided  between 
two  shifts  from  noon  until  one  o'clock.  The  normal  working 
day  is  therefore  eleven  or  eleven  and  one-half  hours  long,  as 
in  the  factory  world  it  is  the  custom  to  close  half  an  hour 
earlier  when  the  lunch  hour  is  shortened  to  half  an  hour.* 

JSTo  skill  is  required  by  any  of  the  processes;  but  the  pack- 
ers must  exercise  good  judgment  in  selecting  slices  of  the  proper 
grade,  else  cans  marked  to  contain  the  best  fruit  may  receive 
inferior  contents  and  vice  versa.  The  forewomen,  of  whom 
there  is  one  at  each  table  in  two  of  the  canneries,  are  respon- 
sible for  the  "pack,"  as  it  is  called.  If  the  manager,  in  in- 
specting the  cans,  which  he  does  haphazard,  finds  careless  pack- 
ing coming  frequently  from  any  table,  the  forewoman  is  de- 
posed ;  but  there  are  no  fines  and  no  penalties,  for  the  reason 
that  it  .is  impossible  to  locate  the  packer  responsible  for  the 
work.  Sometimes  two  or  three  are  engaged  in  packing  the  same 
grade  of  slices  at  the  same  table. 

One  cannery  reports  employing  no  forewoman  because  of 
the  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  women  workers 
to  assume  this  responsibility. 

The  wages  paid  as  reported  by  employers  vary  from  five 
and  six  cents  an  hour,  paid  workers  under  sixteen  years  of 
age,  to  fifteen  cents  an  hour  paid  to  forewomen.  As  a  result, 
girls  who  commence  working  at  twelve  years  of  age  and  are 
experienced  and  efficient  workers,  receive  less  wages  than  an 
older  girl  in  her  first  season.  The  highest  rate  per  hour  paid 
to  any  but  forewomen  is  ten  cents,  and  the  lowest  paid  to 
workers  over  sixteen  years  of  age  is  seven  and  one-half  cents 
an  hour.  One  cannery  reports  paying  for  eleven  hours  if  the 
employes  work  ten  hours.  Overtime  is  paid  for  at  the  regular 


*Butler,  Elizabeth  Beardsley;  Women  and  the  Trades,  page 
311. 


76  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


rate  of  pay  per  hour;  and  in  the  case  of  night  work  until  eight 
or  half -past,  the  workers  interviewed  say  they  either  go  with- 
out supper  until  they  return  home  or  else  their  supper  costs 
them  the  greater  part  of  what  they  earn  in  the  three  extra 
hours.  One  employer  says  he  pays  time  and  a  half  for  overtime, 
"when  he  has  to,"  and  one  gives  the  employes  coffee  and  sand- 
wiches for  supper  when  they  work  later  than  7  o'clock.  As  cof- 
fee and  bread  is  the  almost  invariable  breakfast  and  lunch — if, 
indeed,  any  lunch  at  all  is  eaten — the  effect  on  the  workers' 
health  of  this  overtime,  without  food,  or  with  the  kind  of  food 
available,  cannot  but  be  injurious. 

The  cannery  owners  state  that  during  the  heavy  season  it  is 
necessary  to  work  overtime  to  take  care  of  the  fruit,  which  de- 
teriorates rapidly  and  which  cannot  be  packed  in  cold  storage; 
that  the  Federal  Experiment  Station  had  found  no  way  to  pre- 
vent waste,  once  the  pineapple  is  ripe,  if  it  is  not  canned  im- 
mediately. 

Sunday  work,  of  which  only  five  days  are  reported  by  the 
three  canneries,  is,  however,  devoted  to  labeling,  this  being 
done  after  the  fruit  is  cooked,  canned  and  ready  for  shipment, 
so  there  could  be  no  question  of  deterioration  here.  A  similar 
state  of  affairs,  in  regard  to  overtime  work,  was  found  in  Cali- 
fornia canneries. 

At  seven  and  a  half  cents  an  hour — a  trifle  over  the  average 
paid  all  workers  (omitting  forewomen) — it  is  necessary  for  a 
girl  working  sixty  hours  a  week  (and  being  paid  for  sixty-six 
according  to  the  one-hour  bonus  plan)  to  earn  $4.95.  Con- 
trasted with  the  average  wage  earned  by  employes  in  the  city 
and  country  canneries  of  California,  this  shows  a  much  lower 
rate  in  Honolulu,  the  California  average  being  $7.92  a  week 
for  63.8  hours'  work  in  the  country  canneries  and  $7.21  a 
week  for  57.8  hours'  work  in  the  city  establishments.  (This 
average  also  omitted  forewomen.)* 


^Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  September,  1911; 
page  397. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  77 


The  owner  of  one  of  the  canneries  stated  that  last  year  the 
average  wage  was  $3.50  to  $4.00,  and  that  some  of  the  em- 
ployes who  had  been  with  them  longest  earned  as  high  as  $10.50 
during  the  heavy  season.  This  year  the  rate  of  pay  was  raised 
in  all  the  canneries,  due,  I  was  told  by  several  of  the  girls,  to 
"kicks  by  the  Jap  women." 

The  only  menace  to  the  health  of  the  workers  in  the  pine- 
apple canneries  which  might  arise  from  the  occupation  itself, 
is  the  effect  of  the  pineaple  juice  on  the  skin.  Chemical  anal- 
ysis shows  that  the  acid  is  so  strong,  it  digests  the  skin  as  secre- 
tions of  the  alimentary  canal  digest  food. 

By  order  of  the  Health  Department,  rubber  gloves  are  sup- 
plied by  the  companies  to  the  workers  handling  the  fruit;  but 
most  of  them  work  barefooted,  standing  in  the  drippings  from 
the  tables,  and  their  feet  were  badly  eaten  by  the  juice. 

On  taking  this  up  with  the  authorities,  I  was  told  that  the 
reason  the  rubber  gloves  were  ordered  was  not  because  of  the 
probable  injury  to  the  workers,  but  in  order  to  protect  the  prod- 
uct from  possible  contamination. 

It  would  be  possible  to  slat  the  floors  where  the  workers 
stand,  and  flush  them  well  with  water  several  times  a  day. 

None  of  the  Honolulu  canneries  give  free  housing  accommo- 
dations. 

The  work  of  screening,  operating  the  syrup  machines,  cook- 
ing, sealing  the  cans,  as  well  as  peeling  and  coring,  is  done  by 
men  in  all  the  canneries. 


78 


THE  INDUSTEIAL  CONDITION  OF 


Table  Showing  Length  of  Season,  Time  Shut  Down  During  Season; 
Overtime  Run,  in  Honolulu  Canneries  in  1912: 


Lgth  of  Season. 


1 — 4  months 
2 — 3y2   months 
3 — 3%  months 


Time  Shut  Down. 


Overtime  Run. 


7  half  days.  28  hours  Sunday,  24  hours  night. 

I  whole,  4  hfdays  30  hours  Sunday,  60  hours  night. 
5  whole,  1  hf  day    10  hours  Sunday,  53  hours  night. 


Table  Showing  Wages  paid  per  hour,  Season  of  1912,  in  Honolulu 
Canneries  (As  of  October  1st.) 


! 

H 

ff 

IT1 

fa 
cr 

Over  16. 

||     Under  16. 

<t> 

§ 

p»r 

(D 

< 

Q 

5 

fl> 

a 

(T 

II               I       . 

3 

fl> 

>-« 

CO 

P 

No.        Wa 

ges.  ||     N6.     [Wages 

P 

I 

1...    |  $0.09  |  $0.08  |  $0.08      |$0.08 

250     | 

100 

..15  | 

1 

1 

2... 

.15 

.10 

.07  V2 

.07V2 

85     | 

II       40 

1         1    ..10 

.08V2 

II 

3... 

|              47     |  $0. 

07V2   ||       12 

0.06 

Total  largest  number  of  women  employed 651 

Total  smallest  number  women  employed   142 

Total    Hawaiians    and    Part-Hawaiians    employed 242  in  2  canneries 

Total  Japanese  employed   104  in  2  canneries 

Total  Chinese  employed 40  in  2  canneries 

Total   Portuguese   employed    28  in  2  canneries 


WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  IN  HONOLULU. 


COST  OF  LIVING 

-iiquiry  into  the  cost  at  which  it  is  possible  for  a  woman  or 
girl  to  live  independently  in  Honolulu  was  based  on  two  propo- 
sitions : 

First. — That  she  live  in  the  home  family  of  a 
friend  or  relative,  and  pay  her  quota  of  expense. 

Second. — That  she  either  board  or  room  in  the 
community. 

I  have  given  first  consideration  to  the  proposition  that  she 
live  in  a  family  'because  experience  has  proven  that  to  be  the 
most  desirable  place  for  the  average  working  girl. 

The  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Boston  has  set  its  face  against 
the  philanthropic  home  or  hotel  for  working  girls  because  it 
fails  to  give  them  a  background  for  their  future  life  as  wives 
and  mothers.  The  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home  in  New  York  City, — 
a  most  successful  institution, — cares  for  immigrant  girls  with- 
out family  ties  until  they  may  safely  become  members  of  the 
community.  As  soon  as  a  girl  is  considered  to  be  earning  a 
sufficient  wage  and  acquainted  with  the  customs  of  her  new 
environment,  she  is  placed  in  a  private  family,  these  families 
being  carefully  selected  by  the  authorities  of  the  Home. 

Girls  who  have  been  committed  to  Orphan  Asylums  in  their 
youth  are  also  "bridged  over"  by  residence  in  this  Home,  to 
membership  in  the  normal  community. 

Training  in  various  trades  is  given.  There  is  a  gymnasium, 
and  a  varied  social  program. 

The  girls  pay  from  $3.00  to  $6.00  a  week,  according  to 
earning  capacity. 

In  Honolulu  I  should  say  such  a  home  would  be  valuable 
for  girls  who,  as  in  New  York,  have  been  brought  ut>  in  Or- 
phan Asylums;  for  those  who  are  taken  away  from  improper 
home  surroundings  by  the  Courts;  and  for  any  other  girls  with- 
out family  ties  who  may  not  be  sufficiently  well  grounded  in 


80  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


character  to  live  safely  in  the  community.  I  do  not  consider, 
however,  that  the  normal  wage-earning  girl  should  be  provided 
for  in  this  way. 

I  am  told  that  native  girls  who  earn  fair  wages  and  live  in 
families  other  than  their  own,  pay  $2.50  a  week,  usually  in 
fish,  or  poi,  or  canned  goods,  rather  than  in  money.  I  was 
unable  to  find  any  specific  girl  who  is  now  doing  this ;  but  was 
told  of  the  practice  by  women  who  had  known  of  instances  at 
other  times,  and  whose  knowledge  of  conditions  is  unquestion- 
ably accurate.  This  does  not  represent  the  actual  value  of  ac- 
commodations, however,  as  will  be  shown. 

The  working  girls  I  talked  with  who  were  not  living  in  their 
OWTII  families  were,  with  the  exception  of  those  living  in  the 
Kaiulani  Home,  either  with  relatives  or  adopted  parents,  and 
were  paying  no  board.  Two  women  occupied  tenement  rooms, 
but  both  were  married,  and  had  come  to  Honolulu  from  the 
country  for  the  canning  season. 

Girls  who  do  all  their  own  sewing  say  their  clothing  costs 
them  at  least  $1.25  a  week  to  maintain  a  sufficiently  good  ap- 
pearance to  take  any  part  in  the  social  activities  of  their  asso- 
ciates. This  is  distributed  as  follows  in  a  yearly  allowance : 

3  Hats:— 

2  for  Business,  at  $2.00  each  $4.00 

1  for  Good  wear 4.00 

-$  8.00 

4  Dresses  for  Business,  at  $2.00  8.00 

2  Dresses  for  Good  wear,  at  $5.00  10.00 

4  Pair  Shoes,  at  $3.00  12.00 

Underwear 8.00 

3  Pairs  Silk  Gloves  for  good  wear  3.00 

1  Dark  Skirt  for  bad  weather  2.00 

2  Shirt  Waists,  at  75c  1.50 

1  Coat  5.00 

1  Umbrella  .  1.00 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  81 


2  Pairs  Rulbers  1.50 

Incidentals,    handkerchiefs,   collars,    sewing 

materials,  etc 5.00 


$65.00 

The  fact  that  the  same  wardrobe  does  duty  in  Hawaii  the 
year  round  is  a  very  great  saving.  The  girl  who  has  not  been 
taught  to  sew  (and  this  girl  is  in  the  majority)  must  allow  at 
least  25c  a  week  additional  for  clothing. 

Board,  lodging  and  clothing  can  therefore  be  had  at  $3.75 
or  $4.00  a  week;  carfare  is  60c;  the  cheapest  lunch,  5c  for 
coffee  and  rolls,  is  another  30c,  which  brings  the  total  cost  to 
$4.65  or  $4.90,  without  any  allowance  for  incidental  carfares 
or  amusements. 

On  the  other  hand  living  expenses  in  the  community,  when 
reduced  to  their  lowest  rate,  bring  the  total  expense  to  $2.00 
a  week  each,  provided  two  girls  share  a  room. 

I  have  followed  up  numerous  advertisements  in  the  daily 
papers,  investigated  "Furnished  room"  signs,  etc.,  and  found 
in  the  first  place  that  no  furnished  room  house  will  permit 
cooking  to  be  done  in  the  rooms,  and  secondly  that  the  lowest 
rate  for  a  furnished  room  for  two  girls  was  $2.00  a  week.  If 
two  girls  together  rented  a  tenement  room  at  $2.00  a  month 
they  would  need  to  buy  a  bed,  dishes  and  cooking  utensils,  cost- 
ing at  least  $15.00.  The  cost  per  week  of  maintaining  such 
a  room  would  then  be  for  each : 

Rent  $  .25 

Fuel  and  light 25 

Food  (fruit,  poi,  coffee,  rice,  fish,  etc.)  1.50 


$2.00 

I  have  made  a  sufficient  allowance  for  food  to  provide  a 
nourishing  diet. 

After  a  girl  has  worked  ten  or  eleven  hours,  however,  I  fear 
the  temptation  would  be  either  to  eat  in  a  cheap  restaurant  or 


82  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  or 


to  neglect  cooking  a  substantial  evening  meal,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  Hawaiian  girls,  who  are  prone  to  omit  meals  when 
fatigued  unless  food  is  placed  before  them.  In  the  eating  place 
provided  by  the  Libby,  McNeill  and  Libby  Cannery,  which 
serves  wholesome,  nourishing  meals  at  ten  cents  each,  the  girls 
eat  everything  placed  before  them.  The  sea  air  blowing  through 
the  work-room  constantly  undoubtedly  has  its  share  in  creating 
this  appetite. 

If  two  girls  were  to  occupy  a  furnished  room  and  have  their 
meals  in  restaurant  the  minimum  weekly  rate  for  each  would  be : 

Rent  of  Room  .-. $1.00 

Food  ..  .  2.50 


$3.50 

The  cheapest  rate  at  which  I  could  find  boarding  accommo- 
dations for  two  girls  in  a  room  was  $10.00,  for  a  close,  hot 
room  in  a  house  which  did  not  seem  at  all  desirable  from  any 
point  of  view. 

Altogether  the  best  plan  which  presents  itself  for  providing 
accommodations  is  a  rooming  house  making  provision  for  two 
girls  in  a  room,  and  having  a  cafeteria  dining  room.  I  should 
not  advise  making  this  a  philanthropic  venture.  It  should  be 
not  only  absolutely  self-sustaining,  but  should  be  conducted 
with  a  view  to  its  making  a  return  of  at  least  3%  on  money 
invested.  This  is  the  return  made  by  the  Mills  Hotels  in  New 
York.  Emphasis  should  be  laid  first  on  developing  enterprises 
by  which  self-supporting  girls  may  earn  an  adequate  living, 
and,  secondly,  on  obtaining  a  living  wage  for  those  engaged 
in  occupations  already  established,  rather  than  on  providing 
them  with  a  living  place  at  philanthropic  rates. 

Before  a  girl  is  encouraged  to  leave  her  family  and  live  in 
any  other  home  it  would  be  well  to  give  a  thorough  considera- 
tion to  her  home  problem  and  determine  whether  surroundings 
which  at  first  may  seem  undesirable  cannot  in  some  way  be 
-changed  so  that  family  ties  need  not  be  broken.  Family  re- 


WOMEN    AND   GlELS   IX   HONOLULU. 


83 


sponsibility  needs  to  be  strengthened  in  every  way  possible 
among  the  natives,  and  if  Hawaiian  women  who  have  had  edu- 
cational advantages  would  undertake  the  home  improvement 
work  which  has  had  such  beneficial  results  in  the  Southern 
States,  much  might  be  accomplished  in  raising  standards  of 
sanitation  as  well  as  morals.  Whole  families  still  occupy  one 
room  for  sleeping  purposes,  and  matters  of  this  kind  can  only 
be  remedied  by  constant  personal  effort.  Congresses  of  physi- 
cians and  other  bodies  assembled  to  discuss  questions  of  sex 
morality  all  agree  that  little  can  be  accomplished  so  long  as 
habits  of  decent  privacy  are  not  inculcated. 


84  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


HOURS 

The  Territory  of  Hawaii  has  as  yet  no  labor  laws,  and  there- 
fore the  hours  during  which  men,  women  and  children  work 
are  governed  entirely  by  the  will  of  employers,  the  workers' 
own  wishes  or  economic  necessities,  and  in  the  case  of  children 
by  the  act  providing  that  they  shall  attend  school  during  ten 
months  in  the  year  until  they  are  fifteen,  when  they  may  be 
released  to  go  to  work. 

Employment  in  the  canneries  is  by  the  hour,  each  employe 
being  given  a  time  card  which  is  punched  on  coming  to  work 
in  the  morning,  on  resuming  work  at  noon,  and  on  leaving  at 
night. 

While  the  cannery  season  is  short,  it  is  also  exacting.  In 
addition  to  a  regular  eleven-hour  day  for  four  months  in  the 
year,  a  maximum  of  sixty  hours  overtime  night  work  and  thirty 
hours  of  Sunday  work  was  reported  by  one  cannery.  Two 
others  report  less  amounts.  One  employer  said  he  worked  his 
employes  all  they  would  stand  for.  Weekly  pay  envelopes  show 
from  seventy  to  eighty  hours  of  work  per  week,  in  some  cases 
running  as  high  as  eighty-four  hours.  In  California,  where 
the  season  extended  over  fourteen  weeks,  averaging  sixty-three 
hours  each,  two  cannery  officials,  each  in  a  different  cannery, 
are  reported  by  the  investigator  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  Labor  as  volunteering  the  opinion  that  "cannery 
work  was  so  much  of  a  strain  that  workers  were  unfit  to 'do 
other  work  when  the  cannery  season  was  over/'1* 

Perhaps  the  women  employes  in  the  small  Chinese  and  Japa- 
nese shops  have  the  longest  hours  continuously,  as  these  shops 
open  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  do  not  close  until  nine 
o'clock  or  later  in  the  evening. 

The  workers  in  the  laundries,  who  have  a  regular  ten-hour 
day,  perform  overtime  work  until  eight  or  nine  o'clock  at  least 


^Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  96.  p.  403. 


WOMEN  AND  GIKLS  ix  HONOLULU.  85 


wice  a  week,  and  during  the  winter  season,  when  the  tourists 
are  most  numerous,  one  laundry  manager  reported  eighty-seven 
hours  overtime  in  one  month.  Saturday  is  a  half  holiday  unless 
there  is  a  special  rush  of  work. 

Household  servants,  here  as  elsewhere,  are  among  the  least 
considered  sufferers  from  the  long  day,  and  although  Honolulu 
mistresses  of  households  call  to  one's  attention  the  fact  that  no 
servants  are  on  duty  in  the  evening,  that  may  be  regarded 
rather  as  a  mitigation  of  one  of  the  greatest  hardships  borne  by 
domestic  servants,  rather  than  as  having  a  bearing  on  the  gen- 
eral question  of  a  normal  working  day. 

Honolulu  is  an  early  riser,  and  servants  come  on  duty  at 
half-past  six.  Dinner  is  not  over  at  the  earliest  until  seven 
o'clock,  which  means  that  the  work  of  the  maid  who  waits  on 
the  table  continues  for  at  least  twelve  and  one-half  hours,  and 
longer  if  she  has  any  duties  after  dinner. 

There  are  few  women  cooks,  the  domestic  servants  being 
almost  exclusively  housemaids,  waitresses  and  nursemaids. 
Where  several  maids  are  employed,  each  of  them  has  an  hour 
or  two  of  leisure  through  the  day;  but  in  the  case  of  the  cook- 
and-one-maid  menage,  which  is  by  far  the  most  common,  Sun- 
day afternoon,  and  occasionally, — but  by  no  means  universally, 
— an  afternoon  during  the  week  is  given.  The  long  day  is  a 
potent  factor  in  the  servant  problem;  and  yet  the  Japanese 
women,  like  their  sisters  in  other  communities,  prefer  to  go 
to  work  at  the  machines  in  the  little  shops.  I  have  talked  with 
as  many  of  them  as  could  understand  English,  and  none  would 
consider  going  back  to  housework.  On  having  their  attention 
called  to  the  fact  that  they  were  working  just  as  long  in  the 
shops  they  smiled  and  nodded,  saying:  "Bimeby  not  work  so 
long/'  which  may  forecast  a  similar  situation  to  that  brought 
about  by  certain  of  the  Chinese  huis,  who  have,  notably  among 
the  tailors,  succeeded  in  securing  an  eleven-hour  day.  It  is 
an  undoubted  fact  that  rather  than  become  a  household  serv- 
ant at  a  minimum  wage  of  $4.00  a  week  and  her  food, — in 


86  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


many  cases  all  her  living  expense, — the  women  work  tweli/e 
and  fourteen  hours  in  the  shop  for  from  $2.00  to  $5.00. 

Clerks  and  stenographers  have  an  eight-hour  day.  Shop 
girls  are  on  duty  from  seven-forty-five  until  five  o'clock,  with 
an  hour  at  noon  and  a  Saturday  half  holiday  three  months  in 
the 'year.  One  shop  closes  on  Saturday  at  one  o'clock  f^ur 
months  in  the  year. 

The  shop  girls  have  two  weeks'  vacation  with  pay,  and  all 
the  stores  provide  seats. 

Stenographers  also  have  two  weeks'  vacation  with  pay,  in  a 
great  many  cases  being  allowed  a  three  months'  vacation  every 
three  years. 

Teachers  are  on  duty  from  eight-forty-five  in  the  morning 
until  two-fifteen  in  the  afternoon — almost  an  hour  and  a  half 
less  than  the  regulation  time  for  this  work.  They  have  a 
somewhat  longer  vacation,  too,  than  elsewhere. 

In  her  consideration  of  hours  of  work,  in  " Women  and  the 
Trades,"*  Miss  Butler  questions .  the  length  of  the  working 
day  which  may  be  considered  "long."  "At  present  (even)  ten 
hours  as  the  limit  of  the  working  day  is  far  from  universal," 
she  says.  "Should  ten  hours,  however,  be  set  as  a  permissive 
standard  ?  Or  should  we  seek  rather  to  work  out,  on  the  basis 
of  health,  a  lower  maximum  beyond  which  no  employe  may 
go,  and  below  this  maximum  set  others  corresponding  to  the 
degree  of  strain  in  different  industries  ?  .  .  .  Hours  are 
'long,'  whether  the  day  is  eight  hours  or  ten,  if  the  work  is 
continued  so  long  that  it  causes  ill  health  or  interferes  with 
the  employes'  capacity  for  recreation." 

This  latter  statement  is  especially  interesting  in  the  light 
of  a  conversation  with  the  manager  of  one  of  the  Honolulu 
canneries.  He  was  asked  his  opinion  of  the  degree  of  danger 
to  the  cannery  women  employes  from  being  obliged  to  go 
through  Iwilei,  especially  on  their  way  from  work  in  the 
evening.  He  said :  "After  the  girls  have  worked  ten  or  twelve 


*Pp.   354-5-6. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  87 


hours  a  day  there  is  not  much  danger  that  they  will  skylark. 
They  are  only  too  glad  to  get  home  and  to  bed." 

But  even  though  they  are  too  tired  to  "skylark"  they  do 
not  go  to  bed.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  large  majority  of  women 
workers  have  household  tasks — cooking,  washing  and  ironing — 
to  perform  both  before  and  after  working  hours;  and  many 
have  children  to  care  for.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Ha- 
waiian, Chinese  and  Japanese,  and  I  have  seen  the  women 
standing  on  first  one  foot  and  then  the  other  to  relieve  the 
strain  as  early  as  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  after  a  stretch 
of  long  hours. 

Managers  of  the  canneries  say  that  the  workers  are  at  liberty 
to  stop  work  at  any  hour  of  the  day  they  wish,  as  the  pay  is 
by  the  hour.  In  common  practice,  however,  it  is  made  as  dif- 
ficult as  possible  to  secure  an  accounting  for  time  excepting  at 
regular  periods ;  and  when  work  is  pressing  permission  to  leave 
before  closing  time  is  refused. 

Managers  themselves  say  that  the  habit  of  going  home  before 
closing  time  or  at  noon  is  more  common  among  the  younger 
girls  who  are  working  during  their  school  vacation, — which 
occurs  almost  identically  with  the  canning  season, — than  among 
the  regular  workers. 

The  Hawaiian  enjoys  her  work,  as  she  enjoys  most  of  the 
things  she  does,  and  she  is  as  yet  too  new  to  industry  to  show 
superficially  any  ill  effects  of  labor.  It  was  not  possible,  in 
the  three  and  one-half  months  of  the  investigation,  to  make  any 
study  of  the  effects  of  work  on  her  health. 

The  experience  of  the  world,  however,  is  more  than  likely 
to  be  the  experience  of  Hawaii. 

Hours  of  work  and  the  resulting  fatigue  strains  have  been 
made  the  subject  of  a  close,  scientific  investigation,  covering  a 
period  of  five  years,  by  Miss  Josephine  Goldmark,  publication 
secretary  of  the  National  Consumers'  League,  which  has  now 
been  published  in  book  form  under  the  title  of  "Fatigue  and 
Efficiency,"  and  gives  the  results  of  the  experience  of  both 
Europe  and  America  concerning  the  effects  of  long  hours, 


88  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


night  work  and  occupational  strains  on  women  workers.  Miss 
Goldmark  also  gives  the  substance  of  four  briefs  prepared  by 
her  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis  in  his  suc- 
cessful defense  of  various  State  laws  limiting  women's  hours 
of  labor. 

Her  investigation  shows  that  long  hours  of  work  by  women, 
especially  if  performed  in  a  standing  position,  mean  to  the 
community  heightened  infant  mortality,  a  falling  birth  rate, 
and  race  degeneration,  while  to  the  wrorkers  themselves  they 
mean  every  sort  of  disorder.  In  speaking  of  general  injuries 
to  health,  Miss  Goldmark  says :  "The  fatigue  which  follows 
excessive  working  hours  becomes  chronic,  and  results  in  gen- 
eral deterioration  of  health.  While  it  may  not  result  in  im- 
mediate disease,  it  undermines  the  whole  system  by  weakness 
and  anaemia/' 

On  the  other  hand  the  good  effect  of  short  hours  is  shown 
by  the  growth  of  temperance,  and  "wherever  sufficient  time  has 
elapsed  since  the  establishment  of  the  shorter  working  day,  the 
succeeding  generation  has  shown  extraordinary  improvement  in 
physique  and  morals."4 

Several  pages  of  testimony  from  all  over  the  world  are  sub- 
mitted in  support  of  the  statement  that  "even  the  lightest  work 
becomes  totally  exhausting  when  carried  on  for  an  excessive 
length  of  time."  She  quotes  from  Dr.  Ludwig  Hirt's  "The 
Disease  of  Working  People"  :  "No  attitude  of  the  body  is  harnv 
ful  in  itself;  only  in  prolonging  it  until  it  produces  harmful 
results ;  all  the  well-known  disturbances,  such  as  varicose  veins, 
etc.,  etc.,  arise  not  through  sitting  or  standing,  but  through 
excessively  prolonged  sitting  or  standing."' 

For  the  protection  of  their  women  workers  more  than  thirty 
American  States  have  enacted  laws  limiting  the  hours  of  em- 
ployment for  women ;  but  only  three  States, — Massachusetts, 
Indiana  and  Xebraska, — have  passed  a  law  in  such  form  as 


*"Fatigue  and  Efficiency,"  Part  II,  p.  290. 
*"Fatigue  and  Efficiency,"  Part  II,  p.  321. 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  89 


to  make  it  enforcible.  Miss  Goldmark  defines  "the  rigid  law, 
which  prohibits  overtime  and  night  work,"  as  "one  which  pro- 
vides fixed  boundaries  for  working  hours.  It  protects  women 
from  working  after  a  specified  hour  at  night,  and  more  than 
a  given  number  of  hours  by  the  day  or  week.  The  best  ex- 
emplar of  this  kind  of  law  in  the  United  States  is  the  Massa- 
chusetts statute  which  prohibits  the  employment  of  women  in 
textile  mills  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  more  than 
fifty-four  hours  in  one  week,  or  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing or  after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening.  .  .  .  The  law  is 
final.  Its  provisions  are  clear  cut.  Employers,  employes  and 
inspectors  know  without  disagreement  or  argument  what  con- 
stitutes a  violation.  Work  continued  after  the  specified  closing 
hour  is  conclusive  evidence  of  violation." 

As  showing  the  beneficial  effect  of  shorter  hours  on  output, 
Miss  Goldmark  quotes  at  length  from  the  testimony  of  various 
Massachusetts  employers  of  labor.  The  Treasurer  of  the  At- 
lantic Mills,  in  Lawrence,  stated :  "We  saw  an  improvement  in 
the  operatives  directly  after  adopting  ten  hours.  .  .  .  We 
have  had  more  continuous  and  uninterrupted  work  throughout 
the  year  than  before."  The  Eeport  of  the  Massachusetts  Dis- 
trict Police  states:  "One  manufacturer  stated  to  me  a  short 
time  ago  that  he  had  run  his  mill  sixty-six  hours  per  week, 
supposing  that  by  so  doing  he  increased  the  production  nearly 
one-eleventh,  but  was  persuaded  ...  to  reduce  his  run- 
ning time  to  sixty  hours  per  week,  and  at  the  end  of  six  months 
found  that  the  production  of  his  mill  had  increased  nearly  ten 
per  cent,  while  the  quality  of  work  done  was  more  perfect." 

The  entire  question  of  the  long  day  is  as  yet  in  its  incipiency 
in  Hawaii,  and  the  closing  paragraph  of  Miss  Goldmark's 
preface  is  peculiarly  pertinent.  She  says: 

"In  the  main  opposition  to  laws  protecting  working  women 
and  children  has  come  from  the  unenlightened  employer,  who 
has  been  blind  to  his  own  larger  interests  and  who  has  always 
seen  in  every  attempt  to  protect  the  workers  an  interference 
with  business  and  dividends.  To  this  day  it  is  the  short-sighted 


90  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


and  narrow-minded  spirit  of  money-making  that  is  the  most 
persistent  enemy  of  measures  designed  to  save  the  workers  from 
exhaustion  and  to  conserve  their  working  capacities.  Regular, 
continuous  labor  and  exertion  is  as  necessary  for  the  worker's 
health  as  it  is  for  subsistence,  and  if  legislation  regulating  the 
workday  had  sought  to  invade  legitimate  work,  it  would  long 
ago  have  defeated  its  own  end.  .  .  . 

"First  the  new  industry,  then  exploitation,  then  the  demand 
for  some  measure  of  protection — such  is  the  universal  story. 
Nor  is  this  a  chance  sequence.  It  is  the  relentless  record  of 
history,  the  more  impressive  for  its  unconscious  testimony  to 
a  waste  of  human  effort  and  experience,  in  retrospect  scarcely 
credible  among  a  thinking  people,  yet  in  our  very  midst  per- 
sisting steadily  to  this  day." 

Hawaiian  employers,  most  of  whom  are  kamaainas,  sin- 
cerely interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Hawaiian  girls  and 
women,  have  not  given  adequate  thought  to  the  broader  social 
problems  of  their  employes.  Kind  treatment,  good  air  and 
light  do  much  to  mitigate  matters,  but  no  woman  or  girl  can 
work  standing  continuously  for  ten  or  more  hours  a  day  and 
retain  her  health.  Nor  will  she  in  this  way  become  a  home- 
maker,  and  an  intelligent  mother  and  member  of  the  community. 

AN   ACT 

RESTRICTING  THE  HOURS  OF  LABOR  OF  WOMEN  AND   CHIL- 
DREN UNDER  THE  AGE  OF  SIXTEEN  YEARS. 

Be  It  Enacted  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Territory  of  Hawaii: 
SECTION  1.  The  term  "establishment"  where  used  in  this 
Act  shall  mean  any  place  within  this  Territory  other  than  where 
domestic  or  agricultural  labor  is  employed;  where  men,  women 
or  children  are  engaged  and  paid  a  salary  or  wages  by  any  per- 
son, firm  or  corporation,  and  where  such  men,  women  or  chil- 
dren are  employes  in  the  general  acceptance  of  that  term. 

SECTION  2.  ~No  minor  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  and 
no  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  establishment  for  a  longer 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  91 


period  than  sixty  (60)  hours  in  any  one  week  nor  for  a  longer 
period  than  ten  (10)  hours  in  any  one  day. 

SECTION  3.  ~No  minor  under  sixteen  years  and  no  female 
shall  be  employed  or  suffered  to  work  in  any  establishment 
before  the  hour  of  six  in  the  morning,  or  after  the  hour  of  six 
in  the  evening. 

SECTION  4.  Retail  mercantile  establishments  shall  be  ex- 
empt from  the  provisions  of  Sections  2  and  3  hereof  during  a 
period  of  ten  days  beginning  with  the  fifteenth  day  of  Decem- 
ber and  ending  with  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  the  same  month. 

SECTION  5.  Any  person,  firm  or  corporation  violating  any 
provision  of  this  Act  shall,  upon  conviction,  be  fined  in  a  sum 
not  less  than  One  Hundred  Dollars  ($100.00)  or  more  than 
Five  Hundred  Dollars  ($500.00)  for  each  day  any  person  is 
employed,  permitted  or  suffered  to  work  in  violation  of  this 
Act. 

SECTION  6.  This  Act  shall  be  in  force  and  effect  from  and 
after  the  date  of  its  approval. 


92  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


WAGES 

As  stated  in  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on 
Minimum  Wage  Boards  (page  8)  :  "To  obtain  an  accurate  view 
of  the  condition  of  labor,  so  far  as  women  and  minors  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  especially  of  service  to  obtain,  if  possible,  not  only 
the  wage  schedules,  but  the  actual  weekly  and  annual  variation 
of  these  earnings,  with  ages  and  experience,  irregularity  of  em- 
ployment, the  economic  status  of  the  workers  in  so  far  as  they 
are  aided  by  other  members  of  a  family  group,  or  by  charity, 
or  are  themselves  called  on  to  support  others." 

For  many  reasons  it  was  not  possible  to  exactly  work  out  all 
these  details  in  Honolulu.  Information  was,  as  a  rule,  to  be 
had  from  the  workers  only  during  the  lunch  hour  and  after 
work  was  finished,  and  as  many  of  them  did  not  know  their 
street  and  number,  a  knowledge  of  conditions  was  obtained  by 
visiting  in  the  homes  in  various  parts  of  the  city,  both  during 
the  day  and  at  night,  rather  than  by  following  up  individual 
workers.  Only  five  girls  could  remember  what  amounts  their 
pay  envelopes  contained  for  three  consecutive  weeks.  Then, 
too,  the  great  majority  of  women  of  all  nationalities  spoke  no 
English. 

Employers  were  interested  and  helpful,  and  I  am  indebted 
to  them  for  much  definite  information,  which  was  in  practi- 
cally all  instances  corroborated  by  the  statements  of  the  work- 
ers themselves ;  and  it  is  mainly  on  employers'  information 
that  I  have  based  my  statements  of  wages  paid.  The  workers 
appear  on  the  pay  roll  by  number,  names  not  being  known  as 
a  rule,  and  here  again  it  was  impossible  to  follow  up  indi- 
viduals. 

In  general,  unskilled  wrage-earners  are  almost  without  ex- 
ception aided  by  other  members  of  a  family  group  or  by  charity, 
the  latter  group  including  those  called  on  to  assist  others,  and 
those  who  low  wages  force  to  accept  shelter  or  food,  or  both, 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  93 


either  from  friends  or  relatives,  or  from  homes  philanthrop- 
ically  provided. 

As  shown  in  the  Cost  of  Living  Schedule,  the  minimum 
subsistence  cost  in  Honolulu  is  $5.00  a  week;  whereas  the 
wages  earned  by  beginners  vary  from  $2.50  to  $3.50  in  occu- 
pations offering  employment  to  only  a  few  workers,  to  a  mini- 
mum of  $4.80  in  the  canneries;  while  the  majority  of  laundry 
workers,  with  several  years'  experience,  earn  only  $20.00  a 
month. 

The  fixing  of  minimum  wages  for  women  and  minors  other- 
wise than  by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  or  the  sense  of 
social  responsibility  of  employers,  has  been  in  force  in  Aus- 
tralia since  1896,  through  the  operation  of  a  Minimum  Wage 
Board,  while  England  and  Massachusetts  created  such  Boards 
in  1910  and  1912,  respectively. 

The  thought  of  such  a  Board  in  Hawaii  at  the  present  time 
may  be  quite  as  amusing  as  the  action  of  the  International  As- 
sociation for  Labor  Legislation  (called  by  the  Swiss  Federal 
Council  and  participated  in  by  official  representatives  of  four- 
teen European  powers)  prohibiting  night-work  for  women  in 
Uganda,  Ceylon,  Fiji  Islands,  Leeward  Islands  and  Trinidad; 
yet,  as  Miss  Goldmark  says,  in  commenting  on  this  action: 
" Experience  has  taught  the  wisdom  of  legislating  before  in- 
dustry is  present." 

Industry  is,  however,  present  in  Hawaii,  and  its  growth  has 
been  so  rapid  that,  as  stated  before,  employers  have  not  con- 
sidered seriously  the  questions  involved  in  women's  work. 

An  employer  who  was  genuinely  anxious  to  do  his  best  for 
his  employes  asked  me  seriously :  "What  would  the  girls  do  with 
any  more  money  if  they  had  it  ?"  He  was  quite  willing  to  con- 
sider a  living  wage,  and  also  spoke  of  profit-sharing  with  em- 
ployes. 

The  majority  of  employers,  when  spoken  to  concerning  the 
insufficiency  of  wages  paid,  point  out  that  their  employes  have 
homes  in  which  there  are  other  bread-winners ;  and  that  with 


94  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


few  exceptions  they  are  not  entirely  dependent  on  their  own 
efforts. 

One  special  group  of  seven  women  was  analyzed.  Each  re- 
ceived a  flat  wage  of  $3.00  a  week  in  an  occupation  requiring 
no  skill,  and  in  which  no  advance  in  wages  could  be  received 
until  two  years'  service  had  been  rendered,  when  $4.00  was 
paid.  Even  here  one  girl — a  Japanese — who  had  been  em- 
ployed over  two  years,  had  received  no  advance. 

Of  this  group  three  women  were  married,  one  was  widowed 
and  three  were  young  girls.  One  of  the  married  women,  whose 
husband  was  in  jail  and  who  had  a  three-year-old  child — the 
victim  of  infantile  paralysis — was  receiving  her  rent  from  a 
church  society.  The  woman  who  was  widowed  also  had  her 
rent  paid  by  a  church  society.  Two  of  the  girls  received  help 
from  their  respective  fathers  in  addition  to  their  living  ex- 
penses, and  one  woman  supported  herself  and  invalid  husband 
on  her  earnings  in  this  position  and  in  the  canneries  where  she 
worked  during  the  season  with  her  grandchild,  the  two  earning 
about  $8.00  a  week.  She  was  a  wiry,  industrious  Hawaiian 
woman  of  about  sixty,  and  it  took  much  persuasion  to  get  her 
story  from  her.  The  Hawaiians  are  not  beggars  and  few  of 
the  old  stock  have  been  known  to  seek  alms. 

The  proprietor,  on  having  these  facts  called  to  his  attention, 
said  that  he  could  hire  Chinese  boys  at  $3.00  a  week  and  have 
the  work  done  more  efficiently.  Yet  even  Chinese  boys  depend- 
ent on  their  own  efforts  cannot  subsist  decently  on  $3.00  a 
week. 

In  her  address  before  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Corrections  in  Cleveland,  held  -in  June,  1912,  Mrs.  Flor- 
ence Kelly,  the  dean  and  veritably  the  mother  of  industrial  in- 
vestigation, said: 

aWe  cannot  longer  escape  the  knowledge  that  there 
is  no  more  efficient  cause  of  wholesale  destitution  in 
the  United  States  than  industry.  It  can  be  said  with 
truth  that  poverty  is  the  regular  and  inevitable  by- 
product of  our  present  industry,  as  wealth  is  its  nor- 


WOMEN  AND  GIRLS  IN  HONOLULU.  95 


mal  product.     We  carry  on  our  industry  to  produce 
wealth,  and  incidentally  we  produce  wholesale  poverty. 

insufficient  wages  underlie  a  vast  proportion  of 
the  need  for  correctional  and  reformatory  work.    They 
entail  upon  the  community  child-labor,  tuberculosis, 
underfeeding,  lack  of  refreshing  sleep  and  consequent  • 
nervous  breakdown. 

"They  underlie  industrial  employment  of  mothers, 
whose  neglected  children  fail  in  health  and  morals. 
The  children  in  turn  crowd  the  juvenile  courts  and 
custodial  institutions.  .  . 

"It  behooves  us  all  to  put  in  practice  as  rapidly 
as  we  may  some  standard  of  payment  for  the  work- 
ing people  having  due  relation  to  the  expenditure  of 
life  itself,  in  the  service  of  all,  that  is  made  by  those 
who  work  for  wages." 

A  typical  example  of  the  spirit  being  developed  among  em- 
ployers by  a  better  knowledge  of  conditions  is  cited  by  Mrs. 
Kelley : 

"A  leading  store  in  Boston — Filene's — has  for 
several  months  maintained  a  minimum  wage  of  $8.00 
a  week.  For  many  years  this  store  had  employed  no 
one  who  had  not  finished  the  work  of  the  eighth  grade 
of  the  public  schools.  It  has  thus  set  for  the  whole 
country  an  example  of  retail  trade  as  a  field  in  which 
industry  can  be  carried  on  under  all  the  difficulties 
entailed  by  unlimited  competition,  with  profit  and 
success,  and  without  producing  poverty  as  its  by- 
product." 

In  Honolulu  working  people  can  live  comfortably  on  low 
wages, — in  a  greater  degree  of  comfort  than  in  any  other  com- 
munity of  which  I  have  knowledge, — but  in  practically  every 
family  there  is  more  than  one  wage-earner — the  wife  and  chil- 
dren contributing  their  quota,  however  small. 


96  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


Only  the  tenements,  the  best  of  which  afford  no  decent  pri- 
vacy to  families,  are  open  to  the  man  with  a  family  who  earns 
$1.00  or  even  $1.50  a  day,  if  he  is  the  sole  wage-earner. 

Your  Oriental  population  is  demonstrating  its  wish  for  bet- 
ter standards  of  living  by  the  avidity  with  which  it  is  building 
itself  homes  and  sending  its  children  to  school. 

Its  morals  will  no  doubt  improve  when,  as  a  group  of  Chi- 
nese young  people  said  to  a  Mission  class  leader,  they  "have  a 
better  example  set  them  by  representative  white  citizens/' 

I  believe  that  a  Commission  appointed  by  the  Governor  to 
look  into  wage  conditions  in  Hawaii,  and  their  relation  to  the 
cost  of  living,  would  clarify  the  whole  Hawaiian  labor  situa- 
tion, both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Such  a  commission  for  the  study  of  the  wages  of  women  and 
minors,  was  created  in  Massachusetts  in  1911,  as  follows: 
"Resolved,  That  the  Governor,  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Council,  shall  appoint  a  Commisison 
of   five   persons,   citizens   of  the   Commonwealth,    of 
whom  at  least  one  shall  be  a  woman,  one  shall  be 
a  representative  of  labor,  and  one  shall  be  a  repre- 
sentative of  employers,  to  study  the  matter  of  wages." 
Its  report  recommended  an  Act  not  only  establishing  a  Mini- 
mum Wage  Board,  but  also  providing  for  the  determination  of 
minimum  wages  for  women  and  minors. 
Sections  3  and  4  of  this  Act  provide: 

"SECTION  3.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commis- 
sion to  inquire  into  the  wages  paid  to  the  female  em- 
ployes in  any  occupation  in  the  Commonwealth  if 
the  commission  has  reason  to  believe  that  the  wages 
paid  to  a  substantial  number  of  such  employes  are 
inadequate  to  supply  the  necessary  cost  of  living  and 
to  maintain  the  worker  in  health. 

"SECTION  4.  If  after  such  investigation  the  com- 
mission is  of  the  opinion  that  in  the  occupation  in 
question  the  wages  paid  to  a  substantial  number  of 


OMEX  AXD  GIRLS  ix  HONOLULU.  97 


female  employes  are  inadequate  to  supply  the  neces- 
sary cost  of  living  and  to  maintain  the  worker  in 
health,  the  commission  shall  establish  a  wage  board, 
consisting  of  not  less  than  six  representatives  of  em- 
ployers in  the  occupation  in  question  and  of  an  equal 
number  of  representatives  of  the  female  employes  in 
said  occupation  and  of  one  or  more  disinterested  per- 
sons appointed  by  the  commission  to  represent  the 
public,  but  the  representatives  of  the  public  shall  not 
exceed  one-half  of  the  number  of  representatives  of 
either  of  the  other  parties.  The  commission  shall  des- 
ignate the  chairman  from  among  the  representatives 
of  the  public,  and  shall  make  rules  and  regulations 
governing  the  selection  of  members  and  the  modes  of 
procedure  of  the  boards,  and  shall  exercise  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  all  questions  arising  with  reference 
to  the  validity  of  the  procedure  and  of  the  determina- 
tion of  the  boards.  The  members  of  wage  boards  shall 
be  compensated  at  the  same  rate  as  jurors ;  they  shall 
be  allowed  the  performance  of  their  duties,  these  pay- 
ments to  be  made  from  the  appropriation  for  the  ex- 
penses of  the  commission. " 

Mrs.  Kelly  says,  concerning  it, — and  I  can  think  of  no  more 
fitting  close  to  a  report  on  industrial  conditions: — 

"We  have  never  before  brought  to  bear  the  experi- 
ence of  the  people  most  closely  concerned.  These  are 
the  employers,  the  workers,  the  consumers,  not  the 
bondholders  and  stockholders.  The  employers  know, 
better  than  any  other  persons  can  possibly  know,  the 
meaning  of  the  pay-roll  in  relation  to  their  particular 
branch  of  industry.  The  workers  know,  as  no  one 
else  can,  what  it  costs  to  bring  up  a  family  in  a  par- 
ticular place  in  a  given  year,  and  what;  if  anything, 
can  be  put  away  for  the  future  out  of  a  weekly  wage. 
When,  therefore,  these  two  participants,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  consuming  public,  pool  their  know]- 


98  THE  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  OF 


edge  and  correlate  the  wages  with  the  cost  of  living 
in  their  community,  in  the  full  light  of  publicity,  all 
the  available,  intimate  knowledge  and  practical  ex- 
perience is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  wage  scale  thus 
established. 

"This  is  a  new  extension  of  democracy  into  a  field 
of  industrial  bargaining.  It  gives  the  moral  and  legal 
support  of  the  State  to  its  weakest  economic  elements, 
to  the  women  and  children.  By  thus  turning  on  the 
light,  it  makes  real,  for  the  first  time,  that  which  has 
by  the  economists  and  the  courts  been  assumed  to 
exist,  but  has  not  yet  existed:  equality  of  the  two 
contracting  parties.  It  gives  effect  to  the  will  of  those 
who  have  in  the  past  been  mere  pawns  in  the  hands 
of  masters  who  have  played  the  game  on  terms  laid 
down  by  themselves  alone.  It  gives  votes  to  women 
in  a  field  in  which  women  most  sorely  need  them,  in 
the  determination  of  their  wages.  It  tends,  for  the 
first  time,  to  substitute  justice  through  self-govern- 
ment in  industry,  for  charity." 

Respectfully  submitted, 

FRANCES    BLASCOER. 


AND   GlBLS    IX   HONOLULU. 


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GLOSSARY  OF  HAWAIIAN   TERMS 


ALOHA — Good  will ;  friendship. 

KOXA — South  ;  hot. 

KAMAAIXA — Old  settlers;  long  time  residents. 

POPOL.A — Wild  spinach,  valued  as  a  food  for  its  medicinal 
properties. 

LEI — A  garland  for  the  neck  or  hat  made  of  flowers,  shells, 
seeds,  etc. 

Poi — Pounded  root  of  the  Taro  plant — the  staple  native  food. 

TAPA — A  stencilled  material  made  by  the  pounded  fibre  of  a 
native  tree;  and  formerly  used  for  making  the  chief 
article  of  dress  by  the  natives. 

LAUJIALA — A  native  shrub,  growing  ten  to  fifteen  feet  in  height, 
with  lance-like  leaves  which  when  dried  are  used  for 
mats,  baskets,  etc. 

PAPAIA — A  native  fruit,  somewhat  like  a  muskmelon. 


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JAN  86 1920 


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